Keynes Would Recognize Putin’s Dollar Dilemma
A payments platform favored by Russia is facing welcome scrutiny from the club of central banks. One giant of financial diplomacy wouldn't be surprised.
John Maynard Keynes, center, did not entirely get his way.
Source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
John Maynard Keynes, frequently rated the most influential economist of the past century, sought a post-World War II monetary system that constrained the clout of the US. America emerged from the conflict as the planet’s undisputed financial power, with Great Britain playing a much reduced role.
He didn’t entirely get his way. The lenders that surfaced from a crucial 1944 meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — were subject to great American influence. The dollar was cemented as the driving force in the foreign-exchange market, a position it holds today despite contemporary challenges. At the conclave that ratified the deal, Keynes invoked Sleeping Beauty, the ballet by Tchaikovsky. He hoped good fairies would guide the custodians of this new order, according to a biography by Zachary D. Carter.