Podcast•May 20, 2026•53 min
The Deal that Put the Dollar at the Centre of the World
The episode unpacks the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, the chaotic three‑week summit that cemented the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and birthed the IMF and World Bank. It contrasts John Maynard Keynes’s ambitious Bancor‑based plan for a global clearing union with Harry Dexter White’s US‑favoured system that left the dollar dominant, highlighting the personal dramas—heart attacks, heated arguments, and political intrigue—that shaped the outcome. Through historian Ed Conway’s lens, the hosts explain how the agreement reflected post‑war hopes to fix the broken gold‑standard system and why its legacy still influences today’s debates over international monetary reform.
