BRETTON WOODS
In 1971, the U.S. abandoned that Bretton Woods system of the gold standard... And the subsequent lack of discipline has come with its disadvantages. grand dame to become the site of the all- important, legendary monetary conference that quite literally reset the world economy... the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. This masterpiece was built by an eccentric coal entrepreneur from Concord, New Hampshire and his wife. Between 1900 and 1902, Joseph and Carolyn Stickney spent $1.7 million (about $52 million in today’s dollars) creating their masterpiece. They brought in 250 Italian artists to help build the structure, employing them to assist with granite and the hotel’s legendary red roof and white stucco masonry. Though Joseph died shortly after the hotel’s opening, Carolyn spent every summer at the resort until her death. Prohibition, then the Depression, and then the war hurt the hospitality industry. By the 1930s, the Mount Washington Hotel had fallen on hard times. It closed its doors in 1942... and went up for sale. The Bretton Woods Conference In 1944, a Boston banking group scooped up the hotel for $450,000. They prepared this
Officially known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, the U.S. Treasury hosted this important meeting at the hotel with 730 delegates from all 44 allied nations in July 1944. They gathered in the New Hampshire mountains to restructure and rebuild the post-WWII international economic system... and provide a framework of monetary and financial stability to foster global economic growth. The International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) was created at this conference, and the Bretton Woods gold standard monetary system was adopted. As a result, the United States, which at the time controlled two thirds of the world’s gold, saw the dominance of gold and the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. That was 77 years ago. Time goes by fast... almost as fast as money gets spent. In 1971, the U.S. abandoned that Bretton Woods system of the gold standard... And the subsequent lack of discipline has come with its disadvantages. A main detractor, as any gold bug will tell you, is our inability to really peg our currency to something (other than the reputation of the U.S., which increasingly has come into question). As such... it’s becoming awfully easy to print money. And that’s exactly what our government is doing.
18
January 2021
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs