Gillian Tett

speaker

1,226 appearances 12 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 2 Sep

Gillian Tett’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 12 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 4.

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The Story of Money · The deal that put the dollar at the centre of the world · 20 May 2026 podcast

I mean how did the dollar end up? matched

being put at the centre of this new global monetary system. matched

And that's why Lydia Keynes' wife was being pulled in to act as translator. matched

she's a ballerina by the way as well. matched

I mean, you know matched

I guess it's what people might call today um a case where Harry Jetster White was perhaps a useful idiot rather than an acid. matched

Right, well let's come back to that later. matched

Before we do, um, how did the conference actually end? matched

Because we have Keynes getting increasingly unwell, but did they actually sign an agreement there? matched

A lovely example of of how American domestic policy always trumps international commitments and responsibilities. matched

They got kicked out of the hotel and they signed the agreement so fast that Keynes didn't even read it properly, did he? matched

So let's recap. matched

You know, the delegates get back on that train, going back from Bretton Woods down to the hot and humid climbs of Washington or New York and beyond, and going back to their home countries. matched

The dollar is set to reign supreme. matched

Um you've got two new institutions, the IMF and World Bank, have been created, at least on paper, it will take a while till they actually exist in practice. matched

But the story doesn't really end there because what happens next is that the US President Franklin de Roosevelt, FDR, died in April nineteen forty five and his famously blunt vice president Harry Truman comes in. matched

And then three months later the UK also changed its government with Clement Attlee's Labour government coming into power. matched

So tell us what happened to the Bretton Woods Agreement under the new US president and what happened to Britain? matched

Wow. matched

So that's basically Keynes getting his second attempt to fix the mistakes he saw back in nineteen nineteen. matched

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