13.07.2015 Views

ZICw2w

ZICw2w

ZICw2w

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

364 • International tradebreak some eggs. The disintegration of the national egg is necessary to integratethe global omelet.■ The Bretton Woods InstitutionsAt the end of World War II there was a conference of nations held in BrettonWoods, New Hampshire, for the purpose of reestablishing internationaltrade and commerce, which had been disrupted by the war. The internationaldiplomats and economists, led by John Maynard Keynes of England,and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau and his aide HarryDexter White were successful in negotiating the charter that set up the BrettonWoods Institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and theInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank).These two institutions are made up of member nations. They were foundedon the federal model of internationalization, as just discussed, not the integralmodel of globalization. Their founding, almost 60 years ago, was a wonderfulachievement of international cooperation and diplomacy. Itsymbolized the end of an era of economic depression, followed by war anddestruction, and the beginning of a hopeful era of peace and production inwhich swords would be beaten into plowshares.The atmosphere of eager optimism was expressed by Morgenthau, 4 whoenvisaged “a dynamic world economy in which the peoples of every nationwill be able to realize their potentialities in peace . . . and enjoy, increasingly,the fruits of material progress on an earth infinitely blessed with naturalriches.” Morgenthau went on to say that “prosperity has no fixed limits. It isnot a finite substance to be diminished by division.” The same note wassounded by Keynes: “In general, it will be the duty of the Bank, by wise andprudent lending, to promote a policy of expansion of the world’s economy.. . . By expansion we should mean the increase of resources and productionin real terms, in physical quantity, accompanied by a corresponding increasein purchasing power.” The “empty world” vision of the economy was dominant.Notions of ecological limits to growth were not on the horizon, muchless on the agenda. The founders of the Bretton Woods Institutions felt thatthey had far more pressing issues to deal with in 1945, and they were surelyright. But the world has changed a lot in 60 years. Population has roughlytripled, and resource throughput has increased more than ninefold, 5 movingus a long way from the “empty” toward the “full” world.4 Morgenthau and Keynes quotes are from B. Rich, Mortgaging the Earth, Boston: Beacon Press,1994, pp. 54–55. For an interesting history of the Bretton Woods Conference see also the biographyof Keynes by R. Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, Vol. III, “Fighting for Freedom, 1937–1946,”New York: Viking Press, 2000.5 Calculated from data in J. B. Delong, Macroeconomics, Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill, 2002,chap. 5. The data are labeled GNP, but in the text Delong refers to it as “material output,” what

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!