The Global Economy: America's Role in the Decade Ahead

At the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, representatives from 40 nations established an international structure for postwar reconstruction. The goal of the United States in this effort was to revive Germany and Japan, rebuild the economies of Western Europe and incorporate all into a global economic system led by the United States. Perhaps the US succeeded too well. By most measures the Anmerican economy has lagged behind those of Japan and Germany over the last decade.