The rules of the global financial system were written by the most powerful countries — after winning a war. Use these questions to examine who those rules serve, and whether they are changing.
The Bretton Woods system — established in 1944 — created the IMF, the World Bank, and the dollar-centerd global economy. Who had the most power in designing those rules? Does that matter today?
Try to use: Bretton Woods, post-war order, dollar standard, institutional design, power asymmetry
Is the IMF a helpful institution for developing countries in crisis, or a tool of wealthy nations that imposes damaging conditions in exchange for bailouts? Argue both sides.
Try to use: structural adjustment, conditionality, austerity, sovereignty, debt relief
Have the rules of the global financial system been set fairly? Or do they systematically favor countries that were already wealthy and powerful when the rules were written?
Try to use: institutional bias, historical advantage, veto power, reform, representation
BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — are building alternatives to dollar-denominated trade and the Western financial system. Do you think they will succeed? What would it take?
Try to use: de-dollarization, multipolar world, alternative system, trust, institutional inertia
The United States can impose severe economic damage on any country by cutting off access to the dollar system. Is this an acceptable use of financial power — or a form of economic imperialism?
Try to use: dollar weaponization, sanctions, exorbitant privilege, financial coercion, sovereignty
If you were given the power to redesign the rules of the global financial system from scratch — with fairness as the only goal — what three things would you change?
Try to use: equal representation, debt relief, capital controls, tax havens, reform agenda