Triffin announced his problem with the international monetary system in testimony to Congress in October 1959. Triffin believed that a gold-based system was hostage to the world supply of gold, which could only increase incrementally and far below the world’s demand for dollars. He was gravely concerned about not addressing the problem he had identified, invoking the 1930s repeatedly as an experience the world was risking having again.
Testimony of Robert Triffin from the Joint Economic Committee Hearing, “Employment, Growth, and Price Levels,” October 28, 1959, p. 2909.