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At around 15'40", Varoufakis says that Bretton Woods collapsed in 1971. I'm not enough of an economist/historian to understand this reference. Is he talking about the dollar going off of the gold standard? If so, why is he equating Bretton Woods with this arrangement (ie the dollar being on the gold standard?)

Edit: nm, found this from the US National Bureau of Economic Research: https://www.nber.org/chapters/c6876.pdf

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The Bretton Woods system was a predecessor of the Eurozone (Fixed exchange rate currency). Saying, that in order to have a healthy common monetary union you need to have a federal union first. Otherwise things crashes, as happened to bretton woods and as it’s happening on the eurozone

The Euro is not fixed to anything, but its value floats freely like any other currency. It is "fixed" to Eurozone members in the sense that they can't value/devalue it by themselves.

Comparing the Bretton Woods system to the Eurozone is not a direct comparison

Fixed exchange rate meant as if all countries in Europe would have a fixed exchange rate between them (even if they would use different currencies). Hence the comparison eurozone-Bretton Woods

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