woods and bretton woods was really part of a larger geo political agenda that f.d.r.'s treasury had which was to eliminate britain as an economic and political rival in the post-war world and if that happened yes in fact the british agreed to a sort of faustine bargain with the united states the united states provided limited financial assistance to britain in the form of lend lease in a post-war transitional loan in return for which the british agreed to three things to eliminate imperial trade preference this is the arrangement by which britain gave itself privileged access to the markets of its colonies and dominions it agreed to make the pound sterling fully convertible into u.s. dollars again at a fixed exchange rate which was a mortal threat to british solvency because they had so few dollars and so little gold and finally they would have to accept the u.s. dollar as the global unit of account after the war but as british delegate lionel robbins put it at bretton woods we needed the cash well it sends the u.s. close the gold window and one nine hundred seventy on

prime minister called for a new bretton woods an overhaul of the global financial system they evoke to the memory of the one nine hundred forty four conference here representatives from forty four nations tracks to new hampshire to design a new monetary system for the post war two era. for the label of the world. all agreements must be ratified by the governing bodies of the nation with more becoming a back. why was it so important to establish stabilization of the world's currency as well for one the memories of world war one still lingered specifically the unintended consequences of the peace treaty that the treaty contributed to germany's bankruptcy hyperinflation and. economic collapse which is why when designing the post world war two economic structure the focus was on reconstruction rather than reparations the key goal of bretton woods was to ensure a stable global currency regime that would help all sides rebuild their economic structure earlier we talked to ben steel the author of the new book the battle of britain woods i asked him if today's currency wars bear any resemblanc

at bretton woods was a more competitive dollar which is exactly what we're looking for today in the one nine hundred forty s. all the market pressure on the u.s. dollar was upward so by obliging other currencies currencies to fix to the u.s. dollar we were actually hoping to keep the u.s. dollar down over the past ten years of course we've seen downward market pressure on the u.s. dollar baeza be some key emerging market currencies particular in particular china's currency so when countries like china peg to the u.s. dollar they're actually keeping the u.s. dollar higher which is why we support floating exchange rates now as opposed to the fixed exchange rates. supported in the one nine hundred forty s. what do you see as the outcome of all the quantitative easing well i think we see the risk of a sort of uncoordinated on the ground wing of the international monetary system you you had after the financial crisis world leaders like britain's gordon brown and france's president sarkozy calling for a new bretton woods but we're seeing less and less coordination over time and that could kic

at bretton woods was a more competitive dollar which is exactly what we're looking for today in the one nine hundred forty s. all the market pressure on the us dollar was upward so by obliging other currencies currencies to fix to the us dollar we were. actually helping to keep the u.s. dollar down over the past ten years of course we've seen downward market pressure on the u.s. dollar baeza be some key emerging market currencies particular in particular china's currency so when countries like china peg to the u.s. dollar they're actually keeping the u.s. dollar higher which is why we support floating exchange rates now as opposed to the fixed exchange rates we supported in the one nine hundred forty s. what do you think of the outcome of all this quantitative easing well i think we see the risk of a sort of uncoordinated on the ground wing of the international monetary system you you had after the financial crisis world leaders like britain's gordon brown and france's president sarkozy calling for a new bretton woods but we're seeing less than last coordination over time and that could

after world war two when the us dollar became the official world's reserve currency the bretton woods agreement fix the price of gold at thirty five dollars an ounce and other countries were pegged to the dollar in specific ratios this was not technically a monetary system since governments but not ordinary citizens could regime dollars for gold but at the current as the cost of the vietnam war escalated there was a run on us gold and other countries realize that president nixon was spending far too many dollars in what could be redeemed in gold so what the nixon do well and nine hundred seventy one he permanently severed of a link between the dollar and gold when he closed the gold window. i have the rest of the secretary of the treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators i have directed secretary connally to suspend temporarily the convert ability of the dollar. or other was. and late one nine hundred seventy two and i.m.f. committee on finance ministers and central bankers met to discuss monetary reform and according to an a.p. report the comm

bretton says she covered two kids with her body and kept thinking -- >> don't let me die. out of here. >> reporter: as the roof was torn off and the ceiling caved in on the bathroom, listen to the audio recording on bretton's cell phone of horrified kids, bretton trying to reassure them. [ screaming ] >> you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. you're okay. >> i didn't know what to tell them. i just kept telling them we're okay. my mind, i was praying. >> she said, father, just protect us. put angels in between us and the tornado. i know you're stronger than this tornado. and some of the kids were praying, the teachers were praying and i looked her in the eye and we could hear a roar. >> teaching sixth grade at briarwood and fifth grade, the kids they were protecting, 10 or 11 years old. lynn says the most intense part of the experience when the tornado was at its strongest and grinding their school apart played out over the course of only about ten minutes. afterward, this is what was left of bria

i looked miss bretton in the eye and we could hear a roar. >> reporter: bretton teaches sixth great,or 11 years old. the most intense part of the experience when the tornado was at its strongest played out over the course of ten minutes. afterward, this is what was left of briarwood elementary school. at one point, one of the kids shouted at bretton, "i love you." >> i love you! >> i love you too! we're okay! we're okay! >> reporter: everyone survived. the teachers say no one was hurt. >> the sound, you could hear it start to go away. and i thought, we made it, we made it, thank you, god. >> reporter: lynn bretton said the advice she'd give to teachers for a situation like that count your kids, know who you have, and stay calm. although she says that's next to impossible. brian todd, cnn, moore, oklahoma. >> so many heroes. also so many tragedies here and families coping with unimaginable grieve. jerry bondi's story is wrenching. she is hospitalized coming to grips with the death of her husband. she tells anderson cooper they were holding on to one another in a bathroom in their home

bretton in the eye and we could hear a roar. >> reporter: bretton teaches sixth grade at briarwood. orr teaches fifth grade. the kids they were protecting ten or 11 years old. lynn bretton says the most intense part of the experience when the tornado was at its strongest and grinding their school apart played out over the course of only about ten minutes. afterward, this is what was left of briarwood elementary school. at one point, one of the kids shouted at bretton, i love you. >> i love you! >> oh, i love you, too! we're okay. we're okay! rncht everyone survived. the teachers say no one was hurt. >> in the sound you could hear it just start to go away and i thought, we made it. we made it. thank you, god. >> reporter: bretton says the advice she would give to teachers ever in that situation, count your kids, know who you have, and stay calm. although she says that's next to impossible, wolf. >> these parents, i can only imagine what they must have been going through. you spoke to some of them. >> reporter: well, yeah. i spoke to the two teachers in particular but what the parents

impunity and maybe people don't want to ask too many questions anyway but but you know you can have a bretton woods conference right now because the chinese don't have enough gold when it's like a poker game when all the players sit down at the table everybody wants the same big chips china doesn't have enough chips to play right now you know remember between one nine hundred fifty and one nine hundred seventy under the old bretton woods system u.s. gold reserves went dropped from twenty thousand tons to nine thousand tons where the eleven thousand tons go well went to our trading partners three thousand to germany two thousand to france two thousand italy five hundred to the netherlands a cetera so flash forward thirty years china's now the trade superpower they're running the surpluses but they're not getting any gold they're just getting you know funny money from the treasury so they sort of woke up to that realize they're the suckers in the poker game they've got to get the gold to be a player but they're not there yet so i would expect the price of gold to go sideways you know in dollar

he abrogated the bretton woods system. he put into effect the infamous wage price control program and so there were two big economic issues on the table. one was the wage price controls and because i briefly served on the price commission i was kind of the public face of the wage price controls when i went to the council and the second thing was that the united states tried very hard to develop a new blueprint for the international monetary system because the bretton woods system was gone. and that was my field. i am an international economist and i found myself serving on a group headed by the paul volcker trying to redesign the international monetary system. we had an absolutely beautiful blueprint. it never got used because national politics. the two things that i was heavily involved in were kind of front and center in those days. also, since then, the white house as is so typical of many institutions, had kind of proliferated. now there is not only the council of economic advisers but they national economics counsel a

so one fine day nixon abrogated, essentially, our commitment, ended the bretton woods system. i remember that happened to be the day that i was leaving the council to go back to the university of pittsburgh because i had decided i could to longer ignore the likelihood that the president was mixed up in the watergate scandal. and the chairman's assistant called me up and said, marina, be sure and listen to the radio tonight, because the president is really going to drop a bomb. so i hung up and turned around and said to my family, oh, the president's really going to drop a bomb tonight, and our daughter was about 8 years old, and her pigtails kind of stood up on end, and she hid under the kitchen table and said he's going to drop a bomb here? so anyway, he did. he abrogated the bretton woods system. he put into effect the infamous wage price control program. and so there were two big economic issues on the table. one was the wage price controls, and because i briefly served on the price commission, i was kind of the public face of the wage price controls when i went to the coun

bretton lee joins us from newcastle, oklahoma. just to let people know, newcastle, we haven't mentioned it much in the broadcast. right next to moore. it also saw a lot of the damage. how close were you and what was it like to see this thing come by? >> we were initially 200 to 300 yards east of the tornado. it was pretty intense in that area. we saw the rotation. the national weather service was spot-on as far as getting out a warning about 16 minutes ahead of the actual tornado being on the ground. in that location, i mean, it's a normal sound that you hear from everybody explaining it. i mean, it's surreal. but the sound of a freight train rolling on. you know, when it came down, it was just a small ef-1. but as i've said earlier, it was one of the tornadoes that i never seen intensify this quickly. you know, it went from an ef-1 to an ef-3 or 4 in a matter of about 15 minutes. >> now, i'm going to jump in with a question about that. >> go ahead. >> because what you're talking about is the wind speed picking up dramatically in

prime minister called for a new bretton woods an overhaul of the global financial system they evoke to the memory of the one nine hundred forty four conference here representatives from forty four nations treks to new hampshire to design a new monetary system for the post war two era. just for the label of a term of world. all agreements must be ratified by the governing bodies of the nations on the border coming up back. why was it so important to establish stabilization of the world's currencies well for one the memories of world war one still lingered specifically the unintended quinces of the peace treaty that the treaty contributed to germany's bankruptcy hyperinflation and economic collapse which is why when.

prime minister called for a new bretton woods an overhaul of the global financial system they have bowed to the memory of the one nine hundred forty four conference here representatives from forty four nations tracked to new hampshire to design a new monetary system for the post war two era.

prime minister called for a new bretton woods an overhaul of the global financial system they evoke to the memory of the one nine hundred forty four conference here representatives from forty four nations treks to new hampshire to design a new monetary system for the post war two era. we just want to be able to play for the world. all agreement to be ratified by the governing bodies of the nation with more becoming a back. why was it so important to establish stabilization of the world's currencies well for one the memories of world war one still lingered specifically the unintended consequences of the peace treaty the trade the treaty contributed to germany's bankruptcy hyperinflation and economic collapse which is why when designing the postal worker to economic structure of the focus was on reconstruction rather than reparations the key goal of britain's woods was to ensure a stable global currency regime that would help all sides rebuild their economic structure earlier we talked to ben steele the author of the new book the battle of britain woods i asked him and today's currency w

you can hear sixth grade teacher lynn bretton trying to reassure them. >> you're okay.of the deadly tornado in oklahoma emerged, so did story after story of heroic teachers who put themselves between their tiny charges and the fury of that twister. >> his teacher's in the hospital. his teacher saved his life. >> who's his teacher? >> mrs. low. i have no doubt that god -- they lifted a wall off of these kids, several kids. >> me and four other guys pulled a teacher out. she was on top of three kids. the kids were fine. she was hurt pretty bad. >> it's nothing anybody wouldn't do. these children, we see their smiles, their tears every day, in and out and we love them and they're our babies. >> this isn't the first time teachers have bravely stood up in the face of terror. nearly six months ago in newtown, connecticut six teachers died trying to shield their students from a gunman bent on mass murder. in february president obama posthumously awarded those heroes the medal of freedom. >> they could have taken shelter by themselves, focused on their own safety or well being,