Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

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[Slimprofits]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Gordon Brown, the Washington Post gave him some space on the editorial page today.

This is a defining moment for the world economy.

We are living through the first financial crisis of this new global age. And the decisions we make will affect us over not just the next few weeks but for years to come.

The global problems we face require global solutions. At the end of World War II, American and European visionaries built a new international economic order and formed the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and a world trade body. They acted because they knew that peace and prosperity were indivisible. They knew that for prosperity to be sustained, it had to be shared. Such was the impact of what they did for their day and age that Secretary of State Dean Acheson spoke of being "present at the creation."

Today, the same sort of visionary internationalism is needed to resolve the crises and challenges of a different age. And the greatest of global challenges demands of us the boldest of global cooperation.

The old postwar international financial institutions are out of date. They have to be rebuilt for a wholly new era in which there is global, not national, competition and open, not closed, economies. International flows of capital are so big they can overwhelm individual governments. And trust, the most precious asset of all, has been eroded...

[..]

This week, European leaders came together to propose the guiding principles that we believe should underpin this new Bretton Woods: transparency, sound banking, responsibility, integrity and global governance. We agreed that urgent decisions implementing these principles should be made to root out the irresponsible and often undisclosed lending at the heart of our problems. To do this, we need cross-border supervision of financial institutions; shared global standards for accounting and regulation; a more responsible approach to executive remuneration that rewards hard work, effort and enterprise but not irresponsible risk-taking; and the renewal of our international institutions to make them effective early-warning systems for the world economy.

Tomorrow, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will meet with President Bush to discuss the urgent reforms of the international financial system that are crucial both to preventing another crisis and to restoring confidence, which is necessary to get banks back to their essential purpose -- maintaining the flow of money to individuals and businesses. The reforms I have outlined are vital to ensuring that globalization works not just for some but for all hard-pressed families and businesses in all our communities.

[rj1]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

It seems to me what Brown and Trichet want is a kind of global bank that sets world monetary policies, or at least has regulatory control over it.

The U.S. would never agree to it.

Short of a war with actual guns that we would lose(which we won't anytime soon), why would we voluntarily give up our current authority unless the world started getting rid of dollars?

[skidder]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

probably no sense getting my hopes up for a sound monetary system coming out of this is there? Didn't think so. Same old smoke and mirrors dressed up as an improvement.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Helicopter drops with "lots of fire-power" is all that will ever come-out of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, especially with Bernankee heading it......
The phrase: "injected liquidity with lots of fire-power" is Bernankee's exact words, not mine.

Discipline? The word is unknown to the Fed.:rolleyes:

Ofcourse, reviving the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 is the common-sense solution to this monetary tragedy.

I can just hear the words from Bernankee when it comes to the time to withdraw bank reserves so freely "injected" into the banks in recent days;
the words will be something like: "We have to insure the recovery is stronger before we withdraw injected liquidity," or even, "Some inflation due to 'injected liquidity' is good for the economy."

The downfall of Bernankee will prove to the world the folly of supply-side economics. But the price we all will pay for this folly is tragic.

The best outcome to the tragedy would be the resignation of Bernankee from the Fed and a return of all central banks to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944.

[metalman]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Helicopter drops with "lots of fire-power" is all that will ever come-out of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, especially with Bernankee heading it......
The phrase: "injected liquidity with lots of fire-power" is Bernankee's exact words, not mine.

Discipline? The word is unknown to the Fed.:rolleyes:

Ofcourse, reviving the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 is the common-sense solution to this monetary tragedy.

I can just hear the words from Bernankee when it comes to the time to withdraw bank reserves so freely "injected" into the banks in recent days;
the words will be something like: "We have to insure the recovery is stronger before we withdraw injected liquidity," or even, "Some inflation due to 'injected liquidity' is good for the economy."

The downfall of Bernankee will prove to the world the folly of supply-side economics. But the price we all will pay for this folly is tragic.

The best outcome to the tragedy would be the resignation of Bernankee from the Fed and a return of all central banks to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944.

metalman sez: bernanke stays but paulson is gone with obama in 2009. buffett is our next treas secretary.

[c1ue]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Metalman,

Sir Warren isn't stupid enough to accept being the next Treasury secretary.

His views on government are very well known: several times he's said that he'd never want to be government because government doesn't have the choice to walk away from any deal.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

metalman sez: bernanke stays but paulson is gone with obama in 2009. buffett is our next treas secretary.

Don't think so. Buffett wants to be treas sec about as much as he wants a hemorrhoid. If the election isn't stolen, Krugman or Reich as treas sec, Buffett as an off line adviser.

[phirang]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Don't think so. Buffett wants to be treas sec about as much as he wants a hemorrhoid. If the election isn't stolen, Krugman or Reich as treas sec, Buffett as an off line adviser.

Reich = ZIRP

[zmas28]

Re: Bloomberg: ECB President Calls for Return to Bretton Woods

Don't think so. Buffett wants to be treas sec about as much as he wants a hemorrhoid. If the election isn't stolen, Krugman or Reich as treas sec, Buffett as an off line adviser.

Possibly Lawrence Summers also. Jamie Dimon has also been mentioned, but I really hope not.