At the close of the Second World War, when industrialized nations faced serious trade and financial imbalances, delegates from forty-four countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in order to reconstruct the international monetary system. In this volume, three generations of scholars and policy makers, some of whom participated in the 1944 conference, consider how the Bretton Woods System contributed to unprecedented economic stability and rapid growth for 25 years and discuss the problems that plagued the system and led to its eventual collapse in 1971. The contributors explore adjustment, liquidity, and transmission under the System; the way it affected developing countries; and the role of the International Monetary Fund in maintaining a stable rate. The authors examine the reasons for the System's success and eventual collapse, compare it to subsequent monetary regimes, such as the European Monetary System, and address the possibility of a new fixed exchange rate for today's world.

This volume is a contribution to the debates surrounding international monetary reform. The author examines and analyses the workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and suggests how the international monetary system could, through changes to the IMF, be reshaped and reformed. Chapters examine the Palais-Royal report, explain how the IMF could be granted unlimited bailout powers to confront a global crisis, propose an exchange-rate based mechanism by which the international community could discipline excessive imbalances, examine alternative possibilities for the supply of future reserves, advocate `enthronement of the Special Drawing Right’, and discuss the obstacles in the way of such an ambitious reform agenda.