The Role of International Organizations in Creating a More Stable World Economy

Speech
The Role of International Organizations in Creating a More Stable World Economy [pdf]
John Williamson
Institute for International Economics,
    
     Economic instability in the 1930s was the driving force behind the creation of international economic organizations in the postwar era. The original Articles of the IMF laid out requirements to prevent another round of such instability, but those requirements were not widely heeded and eventually lapsed entirely when the Bretton Woods system collapsed in 1971. The emergence of substantial problems in the developed countries points to a need to abandon the current system in favor of one that leads to internationally consistent policies, but John Williamson says it is unlikely that individual countries will participate in a system of rules necessary for a stable world economy. Hence one has to hope that the sort of ad hoc policy coordination currently practiced by the G-20 will accomplish more than it has done in the recent past.

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