HIS 1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Bretton Woods System, Floating Exchange Rate, Foreign Exchange Controls

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: History
• Course: HIS 1111
• Professor: Thomas Boogaart

Document Summary

I944 the western allies came together to create a new world economic system meant for stability and peace. The agreement that was reached laid the foundaion for the. As the loaing exchange regime was adopted in 1973, speculaion emerged again and states had to abandon capital controls meant to protect their economic policy autonomy for their welfare states. Today, you will hear us discuss if the agreement reached was the type of system that we should be reinsituing for a beter economic system today. The eras before and ater breton woods are clearly diferent, one riddled with uncertainty and economic turmoil, while the other was a ime of economic reconstrucion and growth. Capital low liberalizaion has been part of the development strategy in several countries, in recogniion of the beneits that such lows can bring. At the same ime, capital lows carry risks, as they can be volaile and their size can be large relaive to domesic markets.