Early reports from Bretton Woods II seem to indicate a kind of intellectual paralysis.

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More than a few observers have dubbed this meeting Bretton Woods II, a reference to the 1944 international conference that established the post-World War II monetary system.

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During the post World War II Bretton Woods gold standard, the U.S. economy also grew on average 4% a year.

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This guarantee was made by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, and reaffirmed under the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement for the post World War II international monetary system.

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But that short-lived experiment didn't work, and during World War II the dollar's tie to gold was reaffirmed by the Bretton Woods international monetary system.

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Former Belgian Prime Minister Mark Eyskens says what's needed is something similar to the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference that created rules and institutions to rebuild the economic system after World War II.

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The problem that the Bretton Woods System was attempting to address was a lack of US dollars outside of the US. Following WW II, with the economies of the rest of the world in shambles, a great many countries needed to trade with the US. How could foreign countries trade with the US if they did not have dollars?

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The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created at the conference at Bretton Woods in 1944 as a means to regulate trade between nations in the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II.

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