Robert Triffin (5 October 1911, Flobecq, Belgium – 23 February 1993, Ostend, Belgium) was a Belgian economist best known for his critique of the Bretton Woods system of fixed currency exchange rates. His critique became known later as Triffin's dilemma.
Triffin received his doctorate degree (Ph.D.) from Harvard University in 1938 and taught there from 1939 until 1942. He held positions in the US Federal Reserve System (1942–1946), the International Monetary Fund (1946–1948), and the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (1948–1951), now the OECD. In 1951 he became a professor of economics at Yale University.
Triffin became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He reclaimed his Belgian citizenship in 1977 and returned to reside in Europe. There he was a staunch supporter of European integration and helped to develop the European Monetary System and supported the concept of a central bank, which developed as the European Central Bank.
In 1960 Triffin testified before the United States Congress warning of serious flaws in the Bretton Woods system. His theory was based on observing the dollar glut, or the accumulation of the United States dollar outside of the US. Under the Bretton Woods agreement the US. had pledged to convert dollars into gold, but by the early 1960s the glut had caused more dollars to be available outside the US than gold was in its Treasury. As a result the US had to run deficits on the current account of the balance of payments[1] to supply the world with dollar reserves that kept liquidity for their increased wealth. However, running the deficit on the current account of the balance of payments in the long term would erode confidence in the dollar. He predicted the result that the system would not maintain both liquidity and confidence, a theory later to be known as the Triffin dilemma. It was largely ignored until 1971, when his hypothesis became reality, forcing US President Richard Nixon to halt convertibility of the United States dollar into gold, an event with consequences known as the Nixon Shock). It effectively ended the Bretton Woods System.
A fundamental reform of the international monetary system has long been overdue. Its necessity and urgency are further highlighted today by the imminent threat to the once mighty U.S. dollar.
— Robert Triffin[2]