Track E · InstitutionsNode E3
The Bretton Woods siblings
Layer 1 · Pocket
~ 30s readThe thirty-second answer
What is this?
IMF, World Bank, BIS, WTO. Created in the rubble of WWII to prevent a repeat. Doing very different jobs now than they were designed for. Built in 1944 (BIS earlier; WTO is the GATT successor) for a world that no longer exists. Still running it anyway.
Why should I care?
These institutions feel remote. They're not — they set the rules under which your country borrows, your bank is regulated, your imports clear customs. The remoteness is part of the design; the consequences aren't.
The four · what they actually do
- IMF
- crisis lending + surveillance
- World Bank
- development finance
- BIS
- coordination + Basel rules
- WTO
- trade rules (broken)