The United States launched the European Economic Recovery Plan (Marshall Plan) to provide substantial financial and economic assistance for the reconstruction of Europe, mainly through grants rather than loans. Soviet bloc countries, for example Poland.B, were invited to receive the subsidies, but received a favorable agreement with the Soviet Union`s Comecon. [31] In a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall stated: The main objective and objective of the agreement was the introduction of a monetary system that was not as rigid as the gold standard, but as stable as the gold standard. The Bretton Woods rules, set out in the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), provided for a system of fixed exchange rates. The rules also aimed to promote an open system by requiring members to convert their respective currencies into other currencies and to trade freely. The Bretton Woods system has tried to achieve certain objectives. Forty-four countries sent delegations to the Bretton Woods Conference to negotiate the Bretton Woods system. Each of these 44 countries then signed the agreement. The Bretton Woods Agreement was a financial agreement, and such financial institutions had to be established in order to effectively implement the content of the agreement.
As you study to promote an international financial career path, professionals learn about the impact of international agreements such as Bretton Woods, as well as the institutions they create. Creating a sound international financial strategy means anticipating the impact of central bank announcements and actions managed by national governments and international bodies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now has 189 countries working together to promote growth, international trade and poverty reduction. The IMF says its main objective is “to ensure the stability of the international monetary system.” A devastated Britain had little choice. Two world wars had destroyed the country`s main industries, which paid to import half of the country`s food and almost all its raw materials except coal. The British had no choice but to ask for help. It is only in the United States on the 6th. In December 1945, the British Parliament ratifies the Bretton Woods Agreements (which then took place in December 1945). [24] Below is a brief summary of why global economies have become an integral part of the Bretton Woods system, how it works, how it fails, and why the agreement has an impact on the development of the international monetary system. Modern economists can gain insights and insights by discovering the past of their profession. Another objective of this agreement was to create institutions that finance the individual national development projects of member countries and also conduct international monetary policy. Post-war world capitalism suffered from a huge shortage of dollars.
The U.S. ran huge trade surpluses, and U.S. reserves were huge and growing. This river had to be reversed. Although all countries wanted to buy U.S. exports, the dollars had to leave the U.S. and become available for international use to do so. In other words, the US should reverse the imbalances in global prosperity by posting a trade deficit financed by an outflow of US reserves to other countries (a US budget deficit). The United States could suffer from a financial deficit by importing from foreign countries, building factories, or donating to foreign countries.
Remember that speculative investments were prevented by the Bretton Woods agreements. Importing from other countries was not attractive in the 1950s, as American technology was up to date at the time. Multinationals and U.S. global aid have flourished. [29] The first objective was to create a monetary system that was more flexible than the gold standard. The gold standard makes it difficult, if not impossible, for governments to adjust the value of their currency to their country`s economic needs and forces central banks to hold huge reserves of metal. At the end of the war, the Bretton Woods Conference was the culmination of about two and a half years of planning for post-war reconstruction by the Treasuries of the United States and the United Kingdom. The representatives, along with their British counterparts, discussed the restoration of what had been missing between the two world wars: a system of international payments that would allow nations to act without fear of a sudden currency devaluation or wild fluctuations in exchange rates — diseases that had almost paralyzed global capitalism during the Great Depression. Thirdly, the agreement aimed to promote economic growth among Member States by combining the stabilization of the value of currencies, the promotion of international trade and the creation of entities such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help countries develop their economies.
It is important to note that the implementation of many contents of the agreement was anchored in the IMF, if it had not existed, the agreement would not have seen the light of day. This was the most important for the effectiveness of the adjustable ankle rate. The agreement decided to use a quota and subscription system that showed the economic power of each nation. However, increased state intervention in the national economy has led to an isolationist climate that has had a profoundly negative impact on the international economy. The priority of national goals, independent national action in the interwar period and the inability to recognize that these national goals could not be achieved without some form of international cooperation – all this led to a “every man for himself” policy such as high tariffs, competitive devaluations that contributed to the collapse of the gold-based international monetary system, domestic political instability and international war. The lesson has been, as the principal architect of the Bretton Woods system, the new concessionaire Harry Dexter White, put it: this criticism focuses on the procedures and approaches of both institutions. The common goal of the IMF and the World Bank is to help the world`s weakest economies and reduce the gap between global prosperity and poverty. Few commentators oppose these goals.
However, both institutions have been accused of working in a way that not only fails to achieve these goals, but also worsens the conditions of the economies they are supposed to want to improve. The World Bank, for example, has often tied loans to countries in desperate need of economic aid that critics say have increased unemployment and destabilized economies. It achieves this objective with a tripartite approach. The fact that power was concentrated in the vault of a few nations and that all the countries involved had a united mind to achieve a particular goal (not for politicians to achieve those goals, of course). In a system where currencies fluctuate freely, four pounds could be worth one dollar the following month, two dollars the following month and 50 cents the following month. The ever-changing value of currencies can make it difficult for governments and businesses to plan and conduct international trade. Setting a fixed conversion value made it much easier for companies to predict their costs, regardless of where they operated and the currency they used. The financial crises of US President Richard Nixon`s term led to the end of the Bretton Woods system. During these years, the amount of dollars held abroad exceeded the value of gold reserves held by the United States at Fort Knox and elsewhere. This undermined the premise of the deal, which was that the US could still hedge its dollars with its gold equivalent.
To prepare for the rebuilding of the international economic system while World War II was still raging, 730 delegates from the 44 Allied countries gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, also known as the Bretton Woods Conference. Delegates deliberated from 1 to 22 July 1944 and signed the Bretton Woods Agreement on the last day. With the establishment of a system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, these agreements created the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), now part of the World Bank Group. The United States, which controlled two-thirds of the world`s gold, insisted that the Bretton Woods system be based on both gold and the U.S. dollar. Soviet representatives attended the conference, but later refused to ratify the final agreements, claiming that the institutions they created were “branches of Wall Street.” [1] These organizations began their work in 1945 after a sufficient number of countries had ratified the Convention. The Atlantic Charter, which was held at the meeting of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was designed with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on a ship in the North Atlantic in August 1941, was the most notable precursor to the Bretton Woods Conference. Like Woodrow Wilson before him, whose “Fourteen Points” had described the goals of the United States after World War I, Roosevelt set a number of ambitious goals for the postwar world even before the United States entered World War II. Despite the economic efforts imposed by such a policy, the fact that they are at the center of the international market has given the United States unprecedented freedom of action in the pursuit of its foreign policy objectives.
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