Few events short of war have changed the course of history. The decisions taken between August 13 and 15, 1971, at a secret meeting at Camp David, was one of those occasions. Before that weekend, the U.S. had promised to redeem any dollar held by foreign governments into gold. That solemn commitment, made in a treaty right after World War II, was the lynchpin of an international monetary system that bankers and investors the world over counted on. That gold-dollar link was also the monetary foundation for the greatest period of middle-class prosperity the world has ever seen. In making the momentous decision in the seclusion of Camp David without any consultation with close allies, President Nixon and his team shocked presidents, prime ministers, bankers, investors, traders and anyone else dealing in dollars. In this abrogation we can see the roots of America’s dramatic retrenchment in world affairs that continues today, and its willingness to overwhelm others with the force of its strength. Moreover, it was a concrete admission that America could no longer afford to hold up the global monetary system. And by doing away with the anchor of the financial system, the door was open for the massive market instability and speculation that has plagued the world economy ever since. In a free-for-all financial world, with currencies backed only by confidence in government policies, who and what can we really trust, and what are the broader implications for our world today and tomorrow? Is the emergence of new digital crypto currencies a direct outgrowth of Nixon’s August 1971 actions? Based on extensive historical research and interviews with several men who were at Camp David, and with the perspective of someone who has held posts in four presidential administrations and worked well over a decade on Wall Street, in THE WEEKEND THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Jeffrey Garten takes readers through the history, and the major players involved, that resulted in such a critical turning point of the last half of the twentieth century. By the end you’ll never again see the American economy and its links to the global arena, nor contemplate what’s coming down the road in the world economy, in the same way.