<i>Inflation was due to fears of Opec increasing oil prices</i><p>That would depend on your understanding of inflation. The monetarist views, which it seems to me have proven themselves out most successfully in the real world, say that nothing of the sort can happen. Inflation is caused by one thing, and that's an increase in the money supply. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation#Monetarist_view" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation#Monetarist_view</a><p><i>and moving off the gold standard</i><p>Well, yes, but that's precisely the point. The end of Bretton Woods was already a done deal by the time we're talking about. We were well into the era that the Keynesians though they could play games "stimulating" the economy by injecting money, bringing down unemployment by so doing. The fact that this didn't achieve their goals is exactly what I was talking about, and one of the reasons you should be listening more to the Monetarists like Friedman, rather than to Keynes.