On Feb 18, 2009, at 8:32 PM, Mike Beggs wrote:
>> But wasn't the principal internal contradiction the decline of the
>> rate of
>> return on capital? --CGE
>
>
> I was thinking more proximate causes: the development of the
> Euromarkets and
> hence increased capacity for money capital flows, combined with the
> uneven
> take-off of inflation in various countries putting pressure on fixed
> exchange rates. There are arguments that rate-of-profit developments
> were
> partly behind the (uneven) take-off in inflation, but you don't have
> to
> accept that to see Bretton Woods as contradiction-ridden.
No kidding. Lots of factors: U.S. inflation, partly driven by the effort of funding the Vietnam War; the crisis of the Keynesian/full employment model worldwide; erosion of U.S. hegemony and rise of competitive powers, to name a few.