2025-05-09
45 分钟The Economist. At Bretton Woods, New Hampshire,
delegates from 44 allied and associate countries arrived for the opening of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.
In July of 1944, with victory in World War II looking increasingly certain,
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt gathered allied and friendly nations at a luxury hotel in New England.
These meetings are designed to promote trade in the post-war world and to create a foundation for lasting peace.
But the Bretton Woods Conference did a lot more than that.
It also laid the foundation for a new financial world order,
one built on the supremacy of the US dollar.
In the eight decades since, the greenback has faced some serious challenges,
like Nixon's dismantling of the original Bretton Woods system in the 1970s.
We must protect the position of the American dollar as a pillar of monetary stability around the world.
And potential rivals in the Japanese yen and the euro.
With Beethoven's Ode to Joy and with champagne,
the super currency was launched and then...
the quiet purr of German satisfaction as the euro strengthened.
But the buck still reigns supreme.
Today, the dollar accounts for 58% of all central bank currency reserves,
65% of cross-border lending,
54% of foreign trade invoices,
and 88% of all currency conversions are either into or out of the dollar.