Born in the mid-1940s to serve the interests of the world's leading industrial powers at the time, the Bretton Woods system has long perpetuated and deepened inequalities between advanced economies and the developing world. An overhaul is long overdue.
CAIRO – Today’s international monetary system emerged from the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, when imperial powers still ruled most of the Global South. It was conceived by and for the benefit of just a few wealthy countries, and it has served them well. Though the Bretton Woods system has occasionally been adjusted to reflect the acceleration of globalization and countries’ deepening economic interdependence, it has amplified business-cycle fluctuations, impeded economic catch-up by poorer countries, and perpetuated the dichotomy of developed and developing countries.
CAIRO – Today’s international monetary system emerged from the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, when imperial powers still ruled most of the Global South. It was conceived by and for the benefit of just a few wealthy countries, and it has served them well. Though the Bretton Woods system has occasionally been adjusted to reflect the acceleration of globalization and countries’ deepening economic interdependence, it has amplified business-cycle fluctuations, impeded economic catch-up by poorer countries, and perpetuated the dichotomy of developed and developing countries.