World Bank Founded: Global Economy Rebuilds After War
Twenty-nine nations signed papers in a New Hampshire resort hotel, and money would never move the same way again. The Bretton Woods agreement created two institutions to prevent another Great Depression: one to lend for reconstruction, one to stabilize currencies. The U.S. held most of the gold, so the dollar became the anchor—every other currency pegged to it, and it pegged to gold at $35 an ounce. For three decades this system held. Then Nixon killed the gold standard in 1971, but the institutions survived, morphed, and now move hundreds of billions annually through economies the founders couldn't have imagined.
December 27, 1945
81 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on December 27
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