Enter 1971. Suddenly foreign (gold-backed) capital became less critical to the equation. If profits could not cover debt payments, then export earnings would. If earnings could not, firms could simply take out more loans. If loans were not available, the government could always expand the money supply to push everything forward. (It didn’t hurt that expanding the money supply also drove down the value of the Asians’ currencies, making their exports more competitive and therefore driving up export income.)
