*  *  *  Good afternoon everyone and congratulations to all the students and mentors who are part of the FINEX-JP Morgan Chase 16th Inter-Collegiate Finance Competition or ICFC. I learned that 100 teams from finance schools across the country competed to join the 20 finalists this year. This year therefore had the highest school participation in ICFC’s 16-year history.
The principle of fixed exchange rates had been a feature of the international framework for currency stability after World War II for the economies of Europe, North America and Japan. The Bretton Woods System was based on gold and the US dollar as the predominant monetary standard and worked for several years with almost no frictions.