Des parités aux monnaies flottantes

From parity to floating currencies : the political debate on the international monetary System since 1940, Gérard Pogorel During the second world war, within the framework of the allies negotiations on the post war, the Americans, the English and the French established the foundations of a future international monetary System. The Bretton Woods conference set up in July 1944 the two key institutions — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The liveliness of the discussions on exchange parity and the use of the gold standard, and the weight of the dollar and of the pound sterling prevented the system from becoming operative until the end of the 1950s. The creation of the European Common Market and the competitiveness of Europe and Japan then aggravated the tensions between the United States and the rest of the world, especially General de Gaulle's France. A compromise was reached in 1967 with the creation of the Special Drawing Rights. But the economic crisis of the 1970s and the imbalance of international exchanges resulted in the tri-polar monetary System : the dollar, the yen and the ECU, created in 1979 within the European Monetary System. The failure of an international fiduciary currency is compensated by the flexibility of the new System, even if some heads of state are in the early 1980s speaking of a new Bretton Woods.Pogorel Gérard. Des parités aux monnaies flottantes. In: Vingtième Siècle, revue d'histoire, n°2, avril 1984. pp. 55-67