The IMF and the Bretton Woods

The international financial system has been radically altered since the worldwide depression of the late 1920 s and early 1930 s. This change is due in large part to the inception of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its subsequent control over the international financial system. In this paper I will examine the extensive role of the Bretton Woods system of exchange rates and the gold standard. Additionally, I will examine the role that the IMF has …

…these, if they were accepted, might require years to be put into practice. If the crisis of 1998 had one lesson, it was that nothing short of "a cooperative effort by the entire world community is needed to repair the major shortcomings in the global system," according to IMF chair Camdessus . The question was whether the repairs would be performed quickly enough to enable the IMF and its backers to cope with the next financial implosion