Five finance ministers met at a hotel and deliberately crashed the dollar

In 1985, the US, Japan, West Germany, France and Britain agreed at New York's Plaza Hotel to jointly intervene in currency markets and push the dollar down. It had risen roughly 50% against those countries' currencies since 1980, gutting US export competitiveness. The yen alone nearly doubled in value against the dollar within two years.

— G5 finance ministers and central bank governors, Plaza Accord — Signed 22 September 1985