As one of the 2,000 sailors stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea CVA-47 that was loading up with fuel, ammunition and food in Yokosuka, Japan, in November 1952, to join other ships with Task Force 77 in the Sea of Japan to launch air strikes against enemy targets, I had the opportunity of going on liberty there and exchanging my US dollars for Japanese yen. The exchange rate then was 360 yen for one US dollar. All nations had been on fixed exchange rates for centuries where each nation's monetary unit was a fixed weight of gold/silver, until the United States government decided to delink the US dollar from gold/silver in 1971. Domestically, as a consequence, US citizens lost the price stability of the inflation-proof 90% silver coins and redeemable silver certificates they had used since the inception of their constitutional republican self-government in 1791. Since then, the monetary units of all nations have been floating and their citizens are beginning to question the United States government's decision of 1971 as if it might be criminal. The following article on the evil of floating exchange rates is very informative in this regard.
Ronald A. Miller
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5478Bge9wF8J:ragingdebate.com/economy/antal-fekete-on-the-evils-of-floating-exchange-rates-1+evil+of+floating+monetary+exchange+rates&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us