Bretton Woods and the postwar economy
Fixed exchange rates, the IMF and the World Bank are designed before the war ends.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 27 years
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Delegates meeting in New Hampshire in July 1944 create a system of exchange rates pegged to a dollar convertible to gold, plus the IMF and what becomes the World Bank, intending to prevent a repeat of the 1930s. Keynes's proposal for an international currency is rejected in favour of the American plan. The system underwrites the fastest sustained growth in history until Nixon ends dollar convertibility in 1971.