In this interview excerpt, Niels Thygesen, Head of Monetary Division and Studies at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 1971 to 1973, Adviser to the Governor of the Danmarks Nationalbank from 1973 to 1983 and Chairman of the Danish Economic Council from 1983 to 1985, describes the economic and monetary upheavals at European and international level in the 1970s. He particularly discusses the end of the international monetary system, set up at Bretton Woods in 1944, following the United States’ decision in 1971 to untether the value of the US dollar from that of gold. He also mentions the creation and difficulties of the European currency snake, a system of intervention by the central banks within restricted fluctuation margins of 2.25 %.