Jacob Frenkel, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty(G-30); Former Governor, the Bank of Israel

The world today is completely different from the world of 1944, and we need to design a new system that should be as simple as possible but not overly simplistic, because our world is complex and asymmetric. The current times are a test of the resilience of this system.

The world today is different from that of 1944. The challenges we face are different, and our currencies are different. Although the name Bretton Woods has not changed, we are not simply sitting down to continue the old Bretton Woods system, but rather to rebuild a system. We need to design a system that is as simple as possible, but not overly simplistic, because our world is complex and asymmetric. The rules of this system must allow for the coexistence of various asymmetries.

Over the past few decades, capital markets have played an important role, and the greatest crises have also come from capital markets, as regulatory policies always lag behind market development. When discussing the reconstruction of the Bretton Woods system, we must consider the changes that have occurred in capital markets and keep pace with the evolving market conditions.

The current global economic situation is a test of the resilience of our mechanisms. In the past, during times of high growth and low inflation, it was impossible to test resilience; it is only under conditions like now, with high interest rates, high inflation, and low growth, that we can truly test whether our mechanisms are effective.