The dollar glut is a term for the accumulation of American dollars outside of the United States, contrasted with the dollar gap, which lead to the creation of the Marshall Plan following World War II. The eventual shift to a dollar glut forced the end of the gold standard in the United States and led to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.
The stability of the Bretton Woods system came to depend upon the ability of the US government to exchange dollars for gold at $35 an ounce. The American ability to fulfill this commitment began to diminish as the postwar dollar shortage was transformed into an overabundance of dollars, also known as the dollar glut.
Famous quotes containing the words dollar and/or glut:
“Not one of our national officers ever has had a dollar of salary. I retire on full pay!”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“We can glut ourselves with how-to-raise children information . . . strive to become more mature and aware but none of this will spare us from the . . . inevitability that some of the time we are going to fail our children. Because there is a big gap between knowing and doing. Because mature, aware people are imperfect too. Or because some current event in our life may so absorb or depress us that when our children need us we cannot come through.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)