Money Matters: An IMF Exhibit -- The Importance of Global Cooperation

System in Crisis (1959-1971)

Part 3 of 7

Conflict &
Cooperation
(1871 - 1944)

Destruction &
Reconstruction

(1945 - 1958)
The System
in Crisis
(1959 - 1971)
Reinventing
the System

(1972 - 1981)
Debt &
Transition

(1981 - 1989)
Globalization and Integration
(1989 - 1999)
 
 

The Foreign Exchange Famine

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With independence came expectations of a better life. New governments promised modernization and prosperity. Leaders and citizens alike hoped to share in the economic success of the industrial Western world. To do this, they needed money, not just their own "soft" currencies, but foreign exchange in the form of internationally accepted "hard" currencies.

Where would the newly independent countries find the capital and additional liquidity needed to modernize and grow their economies?

National Geographic
credits

   
A Growing Economy Needs Growing Liquidity

Decolonization
and Development

The Foreign Exchange Famine
     
The Dollar Glut The Incredible Shrinking Gold Supply Searching
for Solutions
Bretton Woods
System Collapses

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