States and the Reemergence of Global Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s

by Eric Helleiner

Most accounts explain the postwar globalization of financial markets as a product of unstoppable technological and market forces. Drawing on extensive historical research, Eric Helleiner provides the first comprehensive political history of the phenomenon, one that details and explains the central role played by states in permitting and encouraging financial globalization. Helleiner begins by highlighting the commitment of advanced industrial states to a restrictive international financial order at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference and during the early postwar years. He then explains the growing political support for the globalization of financial markets after the late 1950s by analyzing five sets of episodes: the creation of the Euromarket in the 1960s, the rejection in the early 1970s of proposals to reregulate global financial markets, four aborted initiatives in the late 1970s and early 1980s to implement effective controls on financial movements, the extensive liberalization of capital controls in the 1980s, and the containment of international financial crises at three critical junctures in the 1970s and 1980s. He shows that these developments resulted from various factors, including the unique hegemonic interests of the United States and Britain in finance, a competitive deregulation dynamic, ideological shifts, and the construction of a crisis-prevention regime among leading central bankers. In his conclusion Helleiner addresses the question of why states have increasingly embraced an open, liberal international financial order in an era of considerable trade protectionism.

Genres: Economics, Politics, History, Finance, Nonfiction, International Relations, Political Science

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Tiago Martins · Rating 4 out of 5]

British and NY bankers tried to undermine the Bretton Woods System of capital controls by imposing trade and financial extreme liberalization and by encouraging the power of the then newly created BIS.

This is the history of a battle between national sovereignity and macroeconomics as expressed on FDR's New Deal and the Bretton Woods System supported by industrialists, against the international bankers in support of a London centered Euromarket.

[Lampros · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise and thought provoking review of the economic developments after the second world war. Will serve to everyone as a great introduction to the post Bretton Woods world. It can at times be a slow read because the author does not resort to verbalisms, something I am highly appreciative of.
During your read you will come across a view that you won't have not heard while reading contemporary economic news. That freedom of (speculative) capital flows and freedom of trade cannot coexist with no friction. This is a view that the architects of Bretton Woods had in mind. The same view is being criticised by some of the reviews. Because as I said this is a short, and interesting book, I will let the reader decide. Highly recommended.

[Filip Batselé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. Well written, lucid overview of the rise and demise of the Bretton Woods global financial system. Had been looking for books on this theme for a while, and found it highly comprehensible even as a non-economist

[Brianna Dzilvelis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for class. Was okay, kind of dense and the main points were tough to read. I might end up coming back to this and rereading.

[Colby]

Ah, another school year dawns upon us...