The Bretton Woods Establishment

Robert Leeson

Chapter 5 in Ideology and the International Economy, 2003, pp 29-37 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The first two IMF Managing Directors, Camille Gutt and Ivar Rooth, both independently described their experiences as ‘the worst years’ of their lives. There was a perception that the Fund was ill suited to the post-war environment and had become a ‘white elephant’ and a ‘bank without clients’ Games 1996, 83–4, 91, 102). In the early years, there had been several devaluations and several renegade currencies floating. But after 1957, the IMF was pleased to report a reversal of these tendencies. The return of the prodigal Italian, Greek and Canadian currencies was especially welcomed: these experiences reinforced IMF prejudices against fluctuating rates (de Vries 1969, 164). In December 1958, Jacobsson negotiated with the French to establish a par value with the IMF for the first time since 1946 Games 1996, 106–7). Afterwards, to preserve the par value system, the international policemen began insisting that exchange rate adjustment could only be considered under very exceptional conditions (Machlup 1966a, 65). Thus the IMF was regarded as having come of age at this time (Krause 1971, 14).

Keywords: Exchange Rate; Executive Director; Exchange Rate Flexibility; Float Exchange Rate; Exchange Rate System (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-28602-3_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230286023

DOI: 10.1057/9780230286023_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().