*  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to talk in front of this distinguished audience about the future of the international monetary system and I would like to thank OMFIF for inviting me to its Golden Series on World Money.
As you know, this lecture series takes place against the background of the fortieth anniversary of the closing of the gold window, also dubbed the “Nixon shock”, which marked the end of the Bretton Woods system. Let me however also recall another anniversary which is less well known.