From 1945 to early 1970, the intervention framework of monetary policy was largely determined by the rules established in the famous conference of Bretton Woods in 1944. Each country committed to maintain a fixed parity between its currency and the U.S. Dollar, the latter engaging in the same time ensuring the convertibility into gold.

However, the excessive growth of monetary base in dollars generated by policies increasingly expansive related to public expenditure - the Vietnam War in particular - have shattered this stability. This resulted in an inconvertible dollar, inflation rampant and finally a general floating currencies. Hence the collapse of Bretton Woods in the mid 70s.

But the government did