Study Group/Discussion: Lessons from Fifty Years of International Economic Policy Cooperation

​​​​​​At the end of World War II the victors established an international financial architecture. The central institution of that architecture was the International Monetary Fund. It was established to support the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. But that system effectively ended when the United States closed its “gold window” in August 1971.  International cooperation on economic policies has continued.  This study group will discuss three questions:

What is the international financial architecture?

Is today’s structure of international cooperation on economic policies more robust than it was 50 years ago?

Is U.S. active participation in addressing common international economic and financial challenges essential to addressing these challenges successfully?​

Edwin (Ted) M. Truman was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) from 2001 until December 31, 2020. Before joining PIIE, he was assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury from 1998 to January 2001. He returned to the Treasury as counselor to the secretary from March 2009 to May 2009. Prior to his service at the Treasury, he was director of the division of international finance at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from June 1977 until October 1998. He joined the staff of the Federal Reserve in 1972 after teaching at Yale. He received his PhD in economics from Yale in 1967 and his B.A. from Amherst College in 1963.   As a senior fellow at M-BCBG, he continues his research on the international coordination of economic policies. His faculty sponsor is Robert Lawrence, Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment, Harvard Kennedy School. Email: etruman@hks.harvard.edu