The rise of the managers of market cooperation

23 May The rise of the managers of market cooperation

The Bretton Woods Conference framers constructed three international institutions that formed the backbone of the global economic system. British economist John Maynard Keynes and the leader of the US delegation, Harry D. White, were the key contributors. Keynes led the effort to form an independent institution to balance American economic power. This was the World Bank. White drafted a blueprint for the International Monetary Fund, which would administer the international monetary system. It would also give countries in economic trouble a way to buy time by borrowing from the fund. The other key institution negotiated at Bretton Woods and adopted at the 1947 Geneva Conference was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The GATT was replaced in 1995 by the Word Trade Organization, whose responsibilities were much broader.  Despite initial constraints, the Bretton Woods system furnished a stable foundation for what the key players—particularly the United States—wanted most: a market capitalist global economy.