new Bretton Woods

Extracted Attributes

• Nature

  Proposed global economic reordering

• Proponent

  Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent

• Primary Goal

  Reshape international economic landscape, challenge existing trade policies

• Associated Policy

  Liberation Day Tariff

• Economic Objectives

  Promote onshoring, manage national debt

• Contrasting Ideologies

  American exceptionalism and innovation (AI) vs. populism, congressional opposition, authoritarianism

• Geopolitical Implications

  Intensify competition with China, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing

Timeline

• The original Bretton Woods Conference began at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, with 44 Allied countries aiming to establish a new international monetary system. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1944-07-01

• The Bretton Woods Agreement was signed, establishing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, now part of the World Bank Group). (Source: Wikipedia)

  1944-07-22

• The United States ended the convertibility of the US dollar to gold, effectively bringing the original Bretton Woods system to an end. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1971-08-15

• Greek Prime Minister Papandreou wrote an op-ed calling for a new global financial architecture, as bold as Bretton Woods. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2010-03-XX

• Following the 2020 Economic Recession, the managing director of the IMF announced the emergence of "A New Bretton Woods Moment," highlighting the need for coordinated fiscal response by central banks. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2020-XX-XX

• Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent frames the controversial 'Liberation Day Tariff' as part of a grander vision for a 'new Bretton Woods'-style global economic reordering. (Source: Related Documents)

  2024-XX-XX

Bretton Woods system

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among 44 countries, including the United States, Canada, Western European countries, and Australia, after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement until the Jamaica Accords in 1976. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold (or 0.88867 gram fine gold per dollar). It also envisioned greater cooperation among countries in order to prevent future competitive devaluations, and thus established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor exchange rates and lend reserve currencies to countries with balance of payments deficits. Preparing to rebuild the international economic system while World War II was still being fought, 730 delegates from all 44 Allied countries gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, also known as the Bretton Woods Conference. The delegates deliberated from 1 to 22 July 1944, and signed the Bretton Woods agreement on its final day. Setting up a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, these accords established the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which today is part of the World Bank Group. The United States, which controlled two-thirds of the world's gold, insisted that the Bretton Woods system rest on both gold and the US dollar. Soviet representatives attended the conference but later declined to ratify the final agreements, charging that the institutions they had created were "branches of Wall Street". These organizations became operational in 1945 after a sufficient number of countries had ratified the agreement. According to Barry Eichengreen, the Bretton Woods system operated successfully due to three factors: "low international capital mobility, tight financial regulation, and the dominant economic and financial position of the United States and the dollar." Eurodollar growth increased capital flows, challenging regulation of capital movements. On 15 August 1971, the United States ended the convertibility of the US dollar to gold, effectively bringing the Bretton Woods system to an end and rendering the dollar a fiat currency. Shortly thereafter, many fixed currencies (such as the pound sterling) also became free-floating, and the subsequent era has been characterized by floating exchange rates. The end of Bretton Woods was formally ratified by the Jamaica Accords in 1976.

Web Search Results

• Bretton Woods system - Wikipedia

  Following the 2020 Economic Recession, the managing director of the IMF announced the emergence of "A New Bretton Woods Moment" which outlines the need for coordinated fiscal response on the part of central banks around the world to address the ongoing economic crisis. ## Impact and criticism [...] In March 2010, Prime Minister Papandreou of Greece wrote an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune, in which he said, "Democratic governments worldwide must establish a new global financial architecture, as bold in its own way as Bretton Woods, as bold as the creation of the European Community and European Monetary Union. And we need it fast." In interviews coinciding with his meeting with President Obama, he indicated that Obama would raise the issue of new regulations for the international [...] When many of the same experts who observed the 1930s became the architects of a new, unified, post-war system at Bretton Woods, their guiding principles became "no more beggar thy neighbor" and "control flows of speculative financial capital". Preventing a repetition of this process of competitive devaluations was desired, but in a way that would not force debtor countries to contract their industrial bases by keeping interest rates at a level high enough to attract foreign bank deposits. John

• The Bretton Woods Moment—and Its Necessary Replacement

  Given the realities of global governance in this century, calls for a new Bretton Woods in the style of 1944 constitution-making will fail. The institutions and politics of global governance have changed radically in a world that is more open and confronts different challenges than the world that emerged from the Second World War. Yet this new reality does not mean that binding international agreements and formal intergovernmental institutions, such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, have become [...] Inequality in influence and outcomes, within societies and between societies, has spurred calls for reform of global economic institutions. A Bretton Woods 2.0 is promoted to both reflect the new realities of global economic power and produce more just and sustainable outcomes, what IMF (International Monetary Fund) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has called a “21st-century multilateralism.” Initiation or reform of formal intergovernmental institutions, even if feasible, may be [...] A reformed framework for global economic governance can open paths to national policy experimentation and support national policies of equity and sustainability, but global institutions cannot solve all economic ills. Any successful Bretton Woods 2.0 will necessarily be incremental and partial, built by the efforts of many actors from the bottom up rather than by a select group of governments from the top down. Making sense of complexity and creating sustained movement toward reform will

• Creation of the Bretton Woods System | Federal Reserve History

  The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference was held in July 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where delegates from forty-four nations created a new international monetary system known as the Bretton Woods system. These countries saw the opportunity for a new international system after World War II that would draw on the lessons of the previous gold standards and the experience of the Great Depression and provide for postwar reconstruction. It was an [...] A new international monetary system was forged by delegates from forty-four nations in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944. Delegates to the conference agreed to establish the International Monetary Fund and what became the World Bank Group. The system of currency convertibility that emerged from Bretton Woods lasted until 1971. Image 2: U.N. Monetary Conference U.N. Monetary Conference (Photo: Associated Press; Photographer: Abe Fox) by Sandra Kollen Ghizoni [...] Those at Bretton Woods envisioned an international monetary system that would ensure exchange rate stability, prevent competitive devaluations, and promote economic growth. Although all participants agreed on the goals of the new system, plans to implement them differed. To reach a collective agreement was an enormous international undertaking. Preparation began more than two years before the conference, and financial experts held countless bilateral and multilateral meetings to arrive at a

• Bretton Woods and the Birth of the World Bank

  On July 1, 1944, as the battles of the Second World War raged in Europe and the Pacific, delegates from forty-four nations met at the secluded Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to participate in what became known as the Bretton Woods Conference. Their purpose was to agree on a system of economic order and international cooperation that would help countries recover from the devastation of the war and foster long-term global growth. At its conclusion, the conference attendees [...] The World Bank logo # Explore History ## Bretton Woods and the Birth of the World Bank The World Bank The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. [...] We also invite you to explore other knowledge products produced by the Archives that relate to the Bretton Woods Conference. In 2019, the World Bank Group celebrated the 75th anniversary of the conference; the Archives organized a variety of events that are documented here. The World Bank Historical Timeline, created by the Archives, has many events exploring Bretton Woods and the early years of the World Bank. Finally, the oral history interviews of former government officials involved in the

• Bretton Woods-GATT, 1941–1947 - Office of the Historian

  United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, a gathering of delegates from 44 nations that met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The two major accomplishments of the Bretton Woods conference were the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), commonly known as the World Bank. The IMF was charged with overseeing a system of fixed exchange rates centered on the U.S. dollar and gold, serving as a forum for [...] finally reached in 1947. Twenty-three nations meeting in Geneva from April to October 1947 concluded the first postwar round of tariff negotiations, leading to reductions in tariffs and imperial preferences, as well as a draft charter for a new institution, the International Trade Organization (ITO). Participants also signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), designed not only to implement the agreed tariff cuts but to serve as an interim codification of the rules governing [...] consultation and cooperation and a provider of short-term financial assistance to countries experiencing temporary deficits in their balance of payments. The IBRD was responsible for providing financial assistance for the reconstruction of war-ravaged nations and the economic development of less developed countries. In July 1945, Congress passed the Bretton Woods Agreements Act, authorizing U.S. entry into the IMF and World Bank, and the two organizations officially came into existence five