eBook

The battle of Bretton Woods

Steil, Benn

2013

Overview

When turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict. The name of the remote New Hampshire town where representatives of forty-four nations gathered in July 1944, in the midst of the century's second great war, has become shorthand for enlightened globalization. The actual story surrounding the historic Bretton Woods accords, however, is full of startling drama, intrigue, and rivalry, which are vividly brought to life in Benn Steil's epic account. Upending the conventional wisdom that Bretton Woods was the product of an amiable Anglo-American collaboration, Steil shows that it was in reality part of a much more ambitious geopolitical agenda hatched within President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Treasury and aimed at eliminating Britain as an economic and political rival. At the heart of the drama were the antipodal characters of John Maynard Keynes, the renowned and revolutionary British economist, and Harry Dexter White, the dogged, self-made American technocrat. Bringing to bear new and striking archival evidence, Steil offers the most compelling portrait yet of the complex and controversial figure of White--the architect of the dollar's privileged place in the Bretton Woods monetary system, who also, very privately, admired Soviet economic planning and engaged in clandestine communications with Soviet intelligence officials and agents over many years. A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn,The Battle of Bretton Woodsis destined to become a classic of economic and political history.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press,Princeton Univ. Press
• Subject: 1883-1946 / 1892-1948 / 20th Century / Adolf Hitler / Adviser / Balance of trade / Bancor / Bank of England / Bretton Woods Conference / Bretton Woods system / Business & Economics / BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History / BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / International / Economics / Capitalism / Central bank / Chairman / Cordell Hull / Council on Foreign Relations / Creditor / Currency / Currency war / Dean Acheson / Debt / Deficit spending / Deflation / Devaluation / Dollar diplomacy / Economic History / Economic policy / Economic theory / Economics / Economist / Elizabeth Bentley / Exchange rate / Fiat money / Foreign direct investment / Foreign policy / Foreign policy of the United States / Free trade / Geldgeschichte / Gold reserve / Gold standard / Großbritannien / Harry Dexter White / HBLW / HISTORY / History & Theory / HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / HISTORY / United States / 20th Century / HM Treasury / Imperial Preference / Imperialism / Inflation / Interest rate / International / International finance / International finance -- History -- 20th century / International Monetary Fund / International monetary systems / International Relations / Internationales Abkommen / Internationales Währungssystem / John Maynard Keynes / JPS / KCZ / Keynes / Keynes, John Maynard / Keynes, John Maynard, 1883-1946 / Keynesian economics / Laissez-faire / Lend-Lease / Lionel Robbins / Marshall Plan / Milton Friedman / Modern / Monetary economics / Monetary policy / Monetary policy -- History -- 20th century / Monetary reform / Monetary system / Morgenthau / Payment / Political Science / POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory / POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General / Politician / Recession / Socialist economics / Soviet Union / Superiority (short story) / Supply (economics) / Tariff / The New York Times / Trade barrier / Trade preference / Unemployment / United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference / United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (1944 : Bretton Woods, N.H.) / United States / United States Department of State / United States dollar / USA / Verhandlungen / War effort / Welt / White / White's / White, Harry Dexter / White, Harry Dexter, 1892-1948 / Whittaker Chambers / World economy
• ISBN: 0691162379, 9780691162379, 9780691149097, 0691149097, 9781400846573, 1400846579