...Bretton Woods System and world trade in post-war period Introduction This reading report is based on two technical papers( The Bretton Woods international monetary system: An historical overview by Michael D. Bordo 148 pages & The post-war rise of world trade: Does the Bretton Woods System deserve credit? By Andrew G. Terborgh 74 pages)on Bretton Wood System as well as the post war international trade system since the U.S has become the most powerful economy after World War II, that US dollar was at that time the dominant currency internationally speaking. The first paper is titled of “The Bretton Woods International Monetary System: An historical overview” by professor Michael D. Bordo who is an economic professor and Director of the center for Monetary and Financial History at Rutger University. His paper has a brief overview of Bretton Woods experience. From its emergence and how it evolved that influence the monetary convertibility and gold dollar standard, until its collapse due to the U.S depression in 1970s. I considered this article to be a very technical one that gives many details on Bretton Wood System in history, but the very interesting part could also be that the author has given the ideas that why Bretton Woods was very stable but lived so short. Meanwhile, the second paper I chose to read is “The Post-War Rise of World Trade: Does the Bretton Wood System Deserve Credit?” . This one is more of an analyzing paper written by Andrew G. Terborgh, economic professor...
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...Most of the countries tried to reestablish the gold standard after World War I, but it had been totally collapsed during the Great Depression in 1930s. Some economists said comply with the gold standard had prohibited monetary authorities from increasing the money supply rapidly enough to recover the economies. Therefore, the representatives of most of the world's leading nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944 to create a new international monetary system. The representatives had decided to link the world currencies to the dollar since the United States accounted for over half of the world's manufacturing capacity and held most of the world's gold during that time. At the final, they agreed should be convertible into gold at $35 per ounce. What is Bretton Woods System? The Bretton Woods system is often refer to the international monetary regime that prevailed from the end of World War II until 1971. The origin of the name is from the site of the 1944 conference that had created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. According to the history, the Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern currency relations among sovereign states. In principle, the regime was designed to combine binding legal obligations with multilateral decision-making conducted through an international organization -- the IMF, endowed with limited supranational authority. In practice the initial scheme, as well as its subsequent...
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...Chapter 2: International Monetary System Question in the test bank follow the order of the chapter outline: Evolution of the International Monetary System The Current Exchange Rate Arrangements European Monetary System The Euro and the European Monetary Union The Mexican Peso Crisis The Asian Currency Crisis The Argentine Peso Crisis Fixed versus Flexible Exchange Rate Regimes Evolution of the International Monetary System 1. The international monetary system can be defined as the institutional framework within which a) international payments are made. b) movement of capital is accommodated. c) exchange rates among currencies are determined. d) all of the above Answer: d) 2. Corporations today are operating in an environment in which exchange rate changes may adversely affect their competitive positions in the marketplace. This situation, in turn, makes it necessary for many firms to a) carefully manage their exchange risk exposure. b) carefully measure their exchange risk exposure. c) both a) and b) Answer: c) 3. The international monetary system went through several distinct stages of evolution. These stages are summarized, in alphabetic order, as follows: (i)- Bimetallism (ii)- Bretton Woods system (iii)- Classical gold standard (iv)- Flexible exchange rate regime (v)- Interwar period The chronological order that they actually occurred is: a) (iii)...
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...A Brief History of the International Monetary System Kenneth N. Matziorinis 1. Introduction The international monetary system is the structure of financial payments, settlements, practices, institutions and relations that govern international trade and investment around the world. To understand the international monetary system, we can start by looking at how a domestic monetary system is structured. The Canadian financial system, for instance, is composed of a) a currency; b) a central bank which issues that currency; c) financial deposit-taking and lending institutions such as commercial banks and d) the Canadian Payments Association. The currency used in Canada is the Canadian dollar. It is the means of payment, store of value and unit of account for all transactions conducted within Canada. It is the currency in which all assets and liabilities are measured. As such, exchange rates are not an issue in our domestic transactions. The country’s central bank, is the Bank of Canada. Its role is to issue the currency of the land, the Canadian dollar, to manage the supply of money to ensure that there is neither too much of it that could cause inflation, nor too little that could cause recession and to oversee the financial system, acting as a lender of last resort when the need arises. Commercial banks and other non-bank financial institutions are the main players in the financial system. They engage in the process of financial intermediation, which is the taking of deposits...
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... After World War I most countries wanted to return to the old financial security and stable situation of pre-war times as soon as possible. Discussions about a return to the gold standard began and by 1926 and all leading economies had re-established the system, according to which every nation’s circulating money had to be backed by reserves of gold and foreign currencies to a certain extent. But several mistakes in implementing the gold standard (mainly that a weakened Great Britain had to take the leading part and that a number of main currencies where over- or undervalued) led to a collapse of the economic and financial relations, peaking in the Great Depression in 1929. Every single country tried to increase the competitiveness of its export products in order to reduce its payment balance deficit by deflating its currency. This strategy only led to success as long as a country was deflating faster and more strongly than all other nations. This fact resulted in an international deflation competition that caused mass unemployment, bankruptcy of enterprises, the failing of credit institutions, as well as hyper inflations in the countries concerned. In the 1930s several conferences dealing with the world monetary problems caused by the Great Depression had ended in failure. But after World War II the need for a stabilizing system that avoided the mistakes, which had been made earlier, became evident. Plans were made for an innovative monetary system and a supervising...
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... | SHANGHAI FINANCE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND TRADE [pic] DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND TRADE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM The History of IMS and its Potential Reformulation Introduction to IMS, Evolution of IMS, Beginning of Bretton Woods and Ending, Dirty floats, Current situation and Reformed Monetary system WINNIE PAUL NDOSA (2011178102) 12/24/2013 |The History of IMS and its Potential Reformulation | | | |Introduction to IMS, Evolution of IMS, Beginning of Bretton Woods and Ending, Dirty | |floats, Current situation and Reformed Monetary system | | | |WINNIE PAUL NDOSA (2011178102) | |12/24/2013 | Introduction The year 1252 marked the minting of the very first gold coin in Western Europe since Roman times. Since this landmark, the international monetary system has evolved and transformed itself into the modern system that we use today. The modern system has its roots beginning in the 19th century. In this thesis...
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...Bretton Woods system. 1. What is The Bretton Woods System? The Bretton Woods agreement was created in a 1944 conference of all of the World War II allied nations. It took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Actually, according to Helleiner (2011), the creation of the Bretton Woods system happened when allied nations of WW2 decided to come up with an integrated monetary financial system to help nations rebuild after the war. The opportunity to create such a new system arose “in the early 1940s when the US & UK policy makers began to plan the organisation of the post-war international monetary and financial system”. In other words, the...
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...rate systems. DEFINITION OF EXCHANGE RATE Exchange rate is defined as the rate at which one currency may be converted into another. The exchange rate is used when simply converting one currency to another (such as for the purposes of travel to another country), or for engaging in speculation or trading in the foreign exchange market. There are a wide variety of factors which influence the exchange rate, such as interest rates,inflation, and the state of politics and the economy in each country, also called rate of exchange or foreign exchange rate or currency exchange rate. (1). FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM In a floating exchange rate system, governments and central banks do not participate in the market for foreign exchange. The relationship between governments and central banks on the one hand and currency markets on the other is much the same as the typical relationship between these institutions and stock markets. Governments may regulate stock markets to prevent fraud, but stock values themselves are left to float in the market. The U.S. government, for example, does not intervene in the stock market to influence stock prices. The concept of a completely free-floating exchange rate system is a theoretical one. In practice, all governments or central banks intervene in currency markets in an effort to influence exchange rates. Some countries, such as the United States, intervene to only a small degree, so that the notion of a free-floating exchange rate system comes...
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...INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSs Name SIDRA IFTIKHAR SECTION: Ah REGISTERATION NO :078 Submitted to sir saqib fareed sheikh GLOBALIZATION Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. In particular, advances in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, including the rise of the Internet, are major factors in globalization and precipitate further interdependence of economic and cultural activities. GATT General agreement on tariffs and trade, an international treaty (1948–94) to promote trade and economic development by reducing tariffs and other restrictions. it was superseded by the establishment of the world trade organization in 1995 History of GATT • Following World War II, the victor nations sought to create institutions that would eliminate the causes of war. • Their principles were to resolve or prevent war through the United Nations and to eliminate the economic causes of war by establishing three international economic institutions. GATT, 1947 Because the ITO was stillborn the provisional agreement for the ITO, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) became the agreement...
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...Europe and the rest of the world. Bretton Woods institutions were created in 1944 during the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at the Mount Washington Hotel (The Bretton Woods Committee, n.d.). The Bretton Woods institutions created an international basis for exchanging one currency for another. It also led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, now known as the World Bank (Stephey, 2008) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)—the precursor to the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition to establishing the World Bank, the Committee chose the U.S. dollar as the pillar of international monetary exchange. The meeting provided the world post World War II currency stability which was desperately needed. The Bretton Woods system itself may have collapsed in 1971, when President Richard Nixon severed the link between the dollar and gold — a decision made to prevent a run on Fort Knox, which contained only a third of the gold bullion necessary to cover the amount of dollars in foreign hands. By 1973, most major world economies had allowed their currencies to float freely against the dollar. It was a rocky transition, characterized by plummeting stock prices, skyrocketing oil prices, bank failures and inflation (Stephey, 2008). However you spin it, Bretton Woods established the United States as the leader and the leader of the new post Second World War economic order. Times...
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...the ‘Bretton Woods Conference’, to discuss their vision for rebuilding the world economy after the ravaging war. John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the biggest economist celebrity of his time, attended the conference with his own idea of how the post-war economy should shape up. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps for us all, his ideas were overruled in favor of American treasury secretary, Harry Dexter White’s plan, and was lost in the annals of history, before seeing renewed resurgence in the context of contemporary instabilities in the international monetary system, forcing a rethink of what was lost in the conference years ago. The Bretton Woods Conference was a defining event in world history, as it established the monetary system that we see today. Dollar hegemony and its status as a reserve currency has been called an ‘exorbitant privilege’, against which there have been voices time and again, but never has the wave been as strong as today. From a concern by economists, such as Triffin, Monbiot, Skidelsky, the overreaching impact of the economic recession of the late 2000s has led to significant doubts about the current system for policymakers and national leaders. In 2008, Monbiot recalled Keynes while analysing the financial instability of 2008, “John Maynard Keynes had the answer to the crisis we’re now facing; but it was blocked and then forgotten”. Skidelsky talks about reforming the ‘non-system’ by focusing on Keynes’ Clearing Union proposals and suggests that it is desirable...
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...portray the expanded development of individuals, information and thoughts, and merchandise and cash crosswise over national outskirts that has prompted expanded interconnectedness among the world's populaces, monetarily, politically, socially and socially. Globalization as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole both concrete global interdependence and consciousness of the global whole in the twentieth century (Robertson, 1992: 8). Despite the fact that globalization is regularly considered in monetary terms (i.e., "the worldwide commercial center"), this methodology has numerous social and political ramifications too. A lot of people in nearby groups partner globalization with modernization (i.e., the change of "conventional" social orders into "Western" industrialized ones). At the worldwide level, globalization is considered regarding the difficulties it postures to the part of governments in universal issues and the worldwide economy. There are warmed verbal confrontations about globalization and its sure and negative impacts. "Friedman realized early that to write intelligently about world economics he needed to make himself an expert in six tightly integrated domains that are usually reported separately: financial markets, politics, culture, national security, technology, and the environment" (Brand, 2002, Introduction section). While globalization is considered by a lot of people as having the capacity...
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...general balance and disbalance of economy, monetary and fiscal policy, the state of the budget, international policy, the condition and development of the country’s economy compared to the world situation and dominating countries, purchasing power of the currency, and other internal and external factors. The history of world exchange rate systems shows us that the world community (in its majority) has in fact shifted from the system of fixed exchange rates to floating exchange rate system. Currently there exist different combinations of floating and fixed exchange rate systems, together with specific economical instruments, created for exchange rate regulating. Since the development of production and a number of divisions of labor there existed such a phenomenon as commodity money. There was no other monetary system until 17th century when there appeared coins having an intrinsic value, not linked with commodity. Usually the value of the coin was associated with the content of gold in the coin. The exchange rate between different coins and different currencies depended on the content of gold in the coin as well, and equaled to the relative content of gold in the coins. In 17th century banks started issuing own banknotes which had the same purchasing power as coins and were backed by precious metals in the banks. People could convert these banknotes into precious metals if they wished so. With the development of this system (the so-called fractional reserve banking)...
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...Exchange Market FX, forex, or currency market) is a form of exchange for the global decentralized trading of international currencies. Virtual No one central physical location that is the foreign currency market Exists in the dealing rooms of various central banks and large international banks and corporations. The dealing rooms are connected via telephone and computers The foreign exchange market assists international trade and investment by enabling currency conversion. Exchange Rates Trading on the Foreign Exchange Market establishes rates of exchange for currency Exchange rates are constantly fluctuating on the forex market as demand rises and falls for particular currencies, their exchange rates adjust accordingly Instantaneous rate quotes are available from a service provided by Reuters Gold Standards A monetary system in which a country's government allows its currency unit to be freely converted into fixed amounts of gold and vice versa. The exchange rate is determined by the economic difference for an ounce of gold between two currencies It was premised on three basic ideas: A system of fixed rates of exchange existed between participating countries Money issued by member countries had to be backed by gold reserves Gold acted as an automatic adjustment The Fall of Gold Standards With the Great War the gold supply continued to fall behind the growth of the global economy The British pound sterling and...
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...Chapter 1 An Overview of International Business International business – business transactions between parties from more than one country. The global economy – an economy in which national borders are irrelevant The global manager – The early era of international business – Basic Forms of Global Business Activities Exporting and Importing Exporting – the selling of products made in one’s own country for use or resale in other countries. Importing – the buying of products made in other countries for use or resale in one’s own country. Merchandise exports and imports (visible trade) – such as clothing, computers, and raw materials. Service exports and imports (invisible trade) – such as banking, travel, and accounting activities. International Investments Foreign direct investments (FDI) – investments made for the purpose of actively controlling property, assets, or companies located in host countries. Foreign portfolio investments (FPI) – purchases of foreign financial assets (stocks, bonds, and certificates of deposit) for a purpose other than control. Home country – the country in which the parent company’s headquarters is located. Host country – any other country in which the company operates. Other Forms of International Business Activity International licensing – a contractual arrangement in which a firm in one country licenses the use of its intellectual property (patents, trademarks, brand names, copyrights, or trade secrets) to a firm in a...
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