The reform of the international monetary system has been under debate for more than a decade. The inherent deficiencies and contradictions of the system established at Bretton Woods have been well understood and documented even before this? but the international political will to undertake necessary structural change could not be mobilised. Instead a series of patch work modifications kept the system in operation, albeit not very effectively, until the action taken by the United States in 1971 removed its essential underpinnings.