The Origins of International Economic Disorder: A Study of United States International Monetary Policy from World War II to the Present

"A competent and highly readable history of the postwar international monetary system, focusing on the political obstacles to reform of monetary arrangements between the U.S. and Western Europe. Written from a revisionist perspective, this work contends that the origins of current international economic disorders must be found in the failure of the Bretton Woods system and the U.S. policy of restoring an open world economy in the midst of the Cold War. Block calls for a socialist solution to the contradictions of national capitalism and advocates the establishment of a controllable international monetary system which would not conflict with the welfare of the world's population. Well-researched and clearly organized, this is a timely and useful contribution to the literature on current international financial issues, and its controversial thesis is most likely to invigorate the present debate on world monetary reform"--from back cover.