Daily quiz: On August 15

1 / 6 |
The Bretton Woods system, established in 1944, created two major institutions: the IMF, to oversee exchange rates and promote monetary cooperation, and the ____, the first institution of what is now the World Bank Group and intended to fund post-war rebuilding in Europe. Fill in the blank.

2 / 6 |
The system encouraged countries to depend on the U.S. dollar as the central reserve currency, itself pegged to gold at $35 per ounce. Name the national currency that the dollar succeeded in this capacity around the mid-20th century.

3 / 6 |
In one dramatic episode in the final years of the Bretton Woods system, and a time of great doubt about the U.S.’s ability to honour its commitment to hold an ounce of gold at $35, French president Georges Pompidou sent a warship to New York to bring France’s gold holdings at the Federal Reserve Bank back. Name the warship.

4 / 6 |
On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon cancelled the ability of the U.S. dollar to be converted to gold. What was the collective name of the effects of this measure, which led to Nixon’s re-election in 1972 but led to the 1973 recession?

5 / 6 |
Name the agreement that, once the Bretton Woods system collapsed, officially rewrote the IMF’s rules: from enforcing fixed rates to overseeing exchange-rate stability and providing policy advice. The agreement also legitimised the modern system of largely floating currencies.

6 / 6 |
Name this English economist who, alongside E.F. Schumacher, proposed a supranational currency called ‘bancor’ in the early 1940s to prevent any single national currency from becoming the world’s main reserve asset.