United States dollar, and the end of the so-called Breton Woods systemin which the United States dollar was used as the reserve currency ofthe world, just as gold had been used under the Gold Standard.[Yet another factor in the importance of Euro and Petro Dollars.]The Canadian dollar fell with the American dollar. Indeed, asUnited States investment leaned toward Asia, away from Canada, and Canadainflated its currency supply [and its rate of inflation] beyond that ofthe United States, and, finally, as the demand for Canadian primaryproducts levelled, the Canadian dollar began its long decline in relationto the United States dollar. When the Canadian government moved tohave oil and gas production owned in Canada [indeed, nationalized in Petro Canada, which was later privatized in the neoconservativereduction of government activities in the 1990s], duringthe OPEC oil crisis, the Canadian dollar took a precipitous fall, fromabout 90 cents to about 80 cents, from which level it continued its slowdecline in relation to the United States dollar. This was a bad time for North America. The whole world suffered frominflation with Euro Dollars and Petro Dollars in abundance, but NorthAmerica suffered from stagflation. It stagnated in productivity growth.It had inflation and unemployment. It also experienced obsolescence in its "smoke stack industries". Iron and steel, and automobileswere better made in other countries with cheaper labour and more recenttechnologies. It looked like the beginning of the end of American superiority. There was talk of the deindustrialization of America,but, America was not going to fade all at once. Indeed, it was goingto recover its position. At this time, when globalization was replacing nationalization, justas nationalization had replaced regionalization in the United Statesin the nineteenth century. American national industries, under threat,became protectionist. The Congress took back from the Executive some oft...
