That's a very charitable view. Bretton Woods was the US (mostly Harry White's) rejection of Keynes' plan and the best that could then be agreed. As a result it

That's a very charitable view. Bretton Woods was the US (mostly Harry White's) rejection of Keynes' plan and the best that could then be agreed. As a result it has a very US flavour. Not especially surprising considering most nations were near bankruptcy at the time with the sole exception of the USA. What resulted in the shape of the IMF and World bank was far different to envisaged and provided none of the speculative and recession control. History has mostly backed up Keynes' opinion, though it worked sort-of reasonably until Nixon abandoned the gold standard. Edit: Far more of the last 40 years geopolitics and economics stems from the oil crisis and the chaos of the immediately following years than Bretton Woods.