U.S. Policy in the Bretton Woods Era

One of the facts about monetary policy during Homer [Jones]'s years at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank is that the United States was part of the Bretton Woods system, in fact at the center of the system. Bretton Woods and international monetary policy were not major concerns of the Federal Reserve however, despite the formal commitment to the system and the responsibility implied by the role of the dollar. The failure to honor the commitment is one part of the inflationary policies of that period. I am pleased to review and interpret the main facts about that experience in this lecture in honor of Homer Jones.