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1944年7月，盟国(Allied nations)已经很明显将夺取第二次世界大战(World War II) 的最后胜利。同样显而易见的是，旧的全球金融系统已经失效，尤其是欧洲，包括英国和法国等原来作为金融巨头的国家，已经没有多少财力来支付自己的重建。

政治家们都十分了解这一局势的危险性。20世纪30年代的大萧条(Great Depression) 曾造成大规模失业和贫困，为阿道夫·希特勒(Adolf Hitler)之类蛊惑人心的政客攫取政权起了推波助澜的作用。

美国财政部长雅各布·卢(Jacob Lew) 最近谈到，当时的美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)等人认为，有必要为促进战后经济增长和国际贸易自由化建立新的国际金融机构。

今年3月，雅各布·卢在亚洲协会(Asia Society)发表讲话指出，“[罗斯福]认识到经济民族主义和贸易保护主义的泛滥加剧了大萧条和滑向战争深渊。他说，‘全世界可能再一次陷入恐慌和经济战争的动乱…或者通过各成员的相互信任、合作及援助争取更好的生活’，这些国际机构可以促使世界向好的方面转化”。

1944年7月1日至22日，来自44个国家的代表在新罕布什尔州布雷顿森林(Bretton Woods, New Hampshire)的华盛顿山（Mount Washington Hotel）宾馆举行会议，计划创建新的国际货币和金融秩序。他们确定美元为全球储备货币，并建立国际货币基金组织，帮助各国解决国际收支平衡和维护金融储备的问题。

布雷顿森林会议还创立了国际复兴开发银行(International Bank for Reconstruction and Development)，成为世界银行集团(World Bank Group)的一部分。该银行为重建欧洲提供贷款，后经过进一步扩展，也为一些新的全球开发项目提供资金。

雅各布·卢表示，“这些金融机构和诸如联合国及经济合作与发展组织(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)等机构为全球化….[和]全球各地的经济增长、自由市场以及金融稳定奠定了基础。这一架构使长达几代人的全球超常经济增长和繁荣成为可能。在这些机构的帮助下，数以百万计的人摆脱了贫困。”

By July 1944, it was becoming clear that the Allied nations would ultimately prevail in World War II. It was equally clear that the old global financial system would no longer work, especially now that Europe, including former financial giants like Great Britain and France, had few resources to pay for its own reconstruction.

Statesmen understood the danger. The Great Depression of the 1930s with its mass unemployment and poverty had helped demagogues like Adolf Hitler achieve power.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew recently recounted how then-President Franklin Roosevelt and others saw the need for new international financial institutions that would improve economic growth and liberalize international trade in the postwar world.

“Recognizing that rampant economic nationalism and protectionism deepened the Great Depression and the slide to war, [Roosevelt] said these international institutions would make the difference between ‘a world caught again in the maelstrom of panic and economic warfare … and a world in which the members strive for a better life through mutual trust, cooperation and assistance,’” Lew told the Asia Society in March.

Delegates from 44 countries met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, July 1–22, 1944, to create the architecture for a new international monetary and financial order. They set up the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency and the International Monetary Fund to help nations with balance-of-payments problems and with difficulties maintaining financial reserves.

The Bretton Woods Conference also created the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, part of the  World Bank Group. The Bank provided loans to finance reconstruction in Europe and then expanded to finance new development projects worldwide.

“These financial institutions and other organizations, such as the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, laid the foundation for globalization … [and] the foundation for economic growth, free markets, and financial stability around the globe,” Lew said.

“That architecture has made possible an extraordinary period of worldwide growth and prosperity that has lasted for generations. And with the help of these institutions, millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.”