On the side of stewardship it is worse still

More than 700 delegates representing not less from 44 nations! Never again Bretton Woods, small town in Eastern New Hampshire in the United States, had such a rush. Since President Roosevelt announced in May 1944, that it is there that would be held from July 1, the International Conference to implement a new organization money around the world, the greatest excitement reign at the Mount Washington Hotel, the very luxurious hotel of Spanish renaissance style chosen for the delegations and debates. Truth be told, the Manager of the establishment appears totally overwhelmed by events. And there is what. Closed for two years because of war, the Mount Washington is a serious painting. Warned the last, the unfortunate Manager had to go work in disaster. The day of the opening of the Conference, the painters are still to pass the layers of finishing on the walls! Members of the military police are even required to give a helping hand...

On the side of stewardship, it is worse still. Any: dishes, sheets, towels, toilet paper, SOAP in the bathrooms, not to mention the staff, which is Ombud in nature and that it is unable to recover. The day of the opening of the Conference, it is the mess: staff too few in number, reserve not enough hot water, missing beds, insurmountable problems of Protocol... Discouraged, the hotel manager eventually disappear, taking with him a box of whisky, aggravating at the time a little more disorder. A man, but, seems to see nothing: John Maynard Keynes. The famous economist that London chose to place at the head of the English delegation to doubt that it is for him save a long route that Roosevelt chose Bretton Woods, not Washington, to the Conference venue Sixty-one years, Keynes suffers from serious heart problems that eventually prevailed in 1946. Roosevelt was formal: everything must be done to preserve the great man, come to England by boat and, a little before arriving in New Hampshire, making a hook by Atlantic City in New Jersey, remote Bretton Woods for a few hours. Not to visit casinos, of course, but to prepare the "great" International Conference to give birth to a new world...

Avoid the monetary shocks

In fact, author "Economic consequences of peace" and the "Treaty on the currency" is the key to discussions of Bretton Woods man. Because of his fame, of course, which exposes him to the eyes of the world: even the Nazi Germany follows his work closely. But also because, when the Conference opens, it's been three years already that Economist think post-war. Stabilize the international monetary system: in September 1941 that Keynes, just named Administrator of the Bank of England, begins to reflect on the way to achieve this goal. In his mind, he is put in place a system to prevent monetary shocks that followed the first world war, but also do not repeat the mistakes of the great depression of the 1930s. In the heart of its work, there is fierce hostility that it is the gold standard system (currencies are convertible into gold) that has dominated the world economy since the 19th century and the crisis of the 1930s has been shattered. If it recognized the merit of having stabilized the exchange for decades, Keynes criticized gold to have resulted in serious deflationary pressures that have impoverished a little more the poor and enriched more rich. Elaboré even before the US war, redesigned several times in the following months, Keynes project bears the mark of his convictions. It provides for the establishment of a clearing house international to provide the cash to ensure its expansion in the world. It also provides for the creation of a central bank managing international currency called the "bancor". Inconvertible gold its value could vary the new money would be nevertheless denominated in gold to ensure prestige. Concession of the great economist to the effect that there is still on the minds the precious metal... English to the end of the nail, Keynes has obviously provided that said Bank would two English representatives one for the United Kingdom, one for the Empire and only one U.S. representative. Surprising blindness! In April 1942, this plan becomes in any case the official position of Britain in the perspective of economic reconstruction of the post-war.

What Keynes is unknown at this time, it is that a man across the Atlantic, is also working on a project of monetary stabilization. Doctor in economics from Harvard, Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Harry Dexter White received mandate of his boss to prepare a plan for the post-war period. Introduced in 1942, his project is very different from that of Keynes: while it favours a system based on a unit of international reserve, the "bancor", the White plan proposes to create a stabilization fund built on deposits of the Member States and a Bank of reconstruction. He also proposed a unit of account named "unitas", simple receipt for gold deposited in the stabilization fund. In the spirit of White, in addition, the system must be based not on an américano-anglaise cooperation, but on a real américano-soviétique condominium. Very surprising indeed. On that date, this long in fact that White is working in secret for the Soviets, feeding them copiously in notes

and confidential records and trying to push their interests. Is that in 1948, after his death, that the Americans will learn it.

American and English object

Two systems, two ways of seeing: Bretton Woods plays in fact from 1942, and the only Americans and the English. Throughout 1942 and 1943, Keynes and White engaged in a deaf struggle for influence to impose their vision of things. All opposed the great bourgeois is Keynes become Lord Keynes of Tilton in 1942, proud of its securities University, global and violently antistalinien celebrity to the Jewish refugee from Lithuania of medium small, a single PhD from Harvard, and supporter of the Soviet Union that is White. One wants to put an end to the gold which he believed that it weakened the England in the 1930s, the other, instead, wants to preserve a system that fueled American prosperity between the two world wars; one is the voice of a country in the process of decline, the other a demand to become a banker in the world. Between the two men and their teams, the skirmishes and the beating of claw multiply. White, however, continues to make concessions to Keynes: thus agrees to massively increase the size of the Fund, to reduce the amount of gold that must provide the Member States, and that the Fund can go into debt. But deep differences remain. It is in large part to smooth out that stands in the last days of the month of June, 1944, a Conference in the small coastal town of Atlantic City. Reserved to only English and American delegations, it is designed to bring out a common position for the Conference which Roosevelt announced the opening at Bretton Woods for July 1.

The White plan prevails

When the 730 delegates representing 44 nations the Soviets came in observers arrived at the Mount Washington Hotel that day, games, for the most part, are made. "The English have proposed, the Americans prepared", said a witness. In outline, it is in effect the plan of White prevailed. Came with his wife, the ballets russes dancer Lydia Lopokova become Lady Keynes, Keynes chooses to snub his world and, rather than attend the inaugural meetings, to give a dinner to celebrate the 500 years of the concordat between the King's College in Cambridge and New College, Oxford. There is no man of tradition for nothing. Throughout the Conference, which starts truly on 3 July, the English Economist annoys his behaviour a nothing condescending and his way to expedite the work. Appointed at the head of the commission on the establishment of a Bank for reconstruction and development a way for the Americans, who appointed White to the head of the commission for the international monetary fund, to neutralize he receives at his home in his suite, small, reads the documents at high speed and in a barely audible voicedistributing orders and advice to the members of the English delegation. Because of his State of health, he is involved nor to the evening sessions, nor to work dinners, which requires continual adjustments in the morning. Watching over her husband as a mother to her children, the wife Lydia top point annoys the American Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, which is located just below that of the Keynes, engaged in night exercises of dance! As Morgenthau, in his capacity as President of the Conference, must manage to unbelievable problems of national pride. Represented by Pierre Mendès-France, the France made so that it will not accept being relegated behind China for the number of representatives to the future... international monetary fund that it agrees finally to. Scarcely is it finished with the France that the Secretary of the Treasury must be explained with the representatives of the India, wishing to take the place of the French! And, as of course, first to claim a privileged place in the future monetary institutions, States, and particularly the smaller, reluctant when it comes to their financial contribution! Epuisant puzzle for Morgenthau as Lady Keynes prevents regular sleep...

Everything is played behind the scenes

As often in such cases, it is behind the scenes, at discrete bilateral meetings, that things are decided. Only the heart attack is victim Keynes, on 19 July, brings delegations in boiling. Around the world, it was announced the death of the famous economist, immediately denied new but making big noise, including Nazi Germany where one is interested in the Conference. When it finally ends, a new monetary system is in place. It is based on a "gold exchange standard" which the fulcrum is the dollar. In theory, all currencies are defined in gold. But in fact, as the United States hold 70 of world reserves of gold, only the parity gold dollar is provided, the other currencies being the time defined relative to the dollar. These coins also have a rate of fixed but adjustable exchange if necessary. Finally, the Bretton Woods Conference devotes the creation of an institution of control and regulation, the international monetary Fund (IMF). Guarantor of the system of fixed exchange rates, the IMF also has financial resources to provide loans to countries in difficulty. Fruit of a compromise bitterly negotiated between the English and the Americans other delegations are slapping to endorse their proposals this system would serve as a framework for the global economy until 1971, date of the suspension by the Americans of the convertibility or of the dollar.