Philippe Naughton: Fresh impetus behind call for 'new Bretton Woods'
[Philippe Naughton has written articles published in The Times.]
Gordon Brown today threw his weight behind calls for "a new Bretton Woods" agreement to set the rules and direction for global trade and finance in the 21st century.
Fresh from pumping £37 billion into emergency bank nationalisations, the Prime Minister told a City audience that he would be pushing his fellow European leaders this week on the need to rewrite the rules of the international financial system after the current market shock.
“Around us we must build a new Bretton Woods - a new financial architecture for the years ahead," Mr Brown said. "Sometimes it does take a crisis for people to agree that what is obvious and should have been done years ago can no longer be postponed."
The Bretton Woods conference, held in July 1944 at a hotel in New Hampshire, helped draw up the post-war financial order, establishing both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Mr Brown is not the first major figure to propose a Bretton Woods 2: President Koehler of Germany, a former IMF head, and President Sarkozy have both made similar demands, but his call will carry extra weight given his record as Chancellor and his role in negotiating a co-ordinated approach to the current crisis.
Referring to the original conference, where the British economist John Maynard Keynes wielded immense infuence, Mr Brown said today: “With the same courage and foresight of their founders, we must now reform the international financial system around agreed principles of transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and cooperation across borders...
Read entire article at Times (UK)
Gordon Brown today threw his weight behind calls for "a new Bretton Woods" agreement to set the rules and direction for global trade and finance in the 21st century.
Fresh from pumping £37 billion into emergency bank nationalisations, the Prime Minister told a City audience that he would be pushing his fellow European leaders this week on the need to rewrite the rules of the international financial system after the current market shock.
“Around us we must build a new Bretton Woods - a new financial architecture for the years ahead," Mr Brown said. "Sometimes it does take a crisis for people to agree that what is obvious and should have been done years ago can no longer be postponed."
The Bretton Woods conference, held in July 1944 at a hotel in New Hampshire, helped draw up the post-war financial order, establishing both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Mr Brown is not the first major figure to propose a Bretton Woods 2: President Koehler of Germany, a former IMF head, and President Sarkozy have both made similar demands, but his call will carry extra weight given his record as Chancellor and his role in negotiating a co-ordinated approach to the current crisis.
Referring to the original conference, where the British economist John Maynard Keynes wielded immense infuence, Mr Brown said today: “With the same courage and foresight of their founders, we must now reform the international financial system around agreed principles of transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and cooperation across borders...