Reforming the International Monetary System

The functioning of the international monetary system as institutionalised under the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund after World War II began to deteriorate after 1957. By that date many European countries had sufficiently recovered or improved their competitive positions in world markets to enable them to replenish their external reserves and make their currencies convertible. Up to that point their acquisitions of gold and US dollars must be viewed as a healthy redistribution of international reserves, But thereafter dollar surpluses replaced the alleged dollar shortages of earlier years on international markets. Recurring runs on the dollar appeared, vying with the periodic runs on sterling as threats to the stability of the system.