The International Monetary and Financial System: A Fork in the Road
In this publication by the
Peterson Institute for International Economics, released on the occasion of the Andrew Crockett Memorial Lecture in Basel on 29 June 2025, Maurice Obstfeld notes that a US-centric, dollar-based international monetary and financial system (IMFS) was inevitable in the immediate postwar decades considering prevailing economic conditions and the institutional arrangements made at Bretton Woods. The US administration in power since January 2025 is basing its international policies on the premise that current global trade, financial and geopolitical arrangements have unfairly disadvantaged the United States. Fewer than six months into the second Trump presidency, there is still time for the United States to take a different road. That would require a more constructive approach to its global relationships and a reversal of pressures on the many institutions that have long underpinned US economic and political stability.
https://www.bis.org
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