CONTRADICTIONS OF CAPITALISM AS A WORLD SYSTEM.

The purpose of this article is to develop a critique of the post-War international monetary system. It further focuses on post-World War II capitalist world economy. During and after World War II, the U.S. struggled, with eventual success, to impose on the rest of the world an international monetary system with both a high degree of openness and a large measure of special rights and responsibilities for the U.S. During much of the post-War period the existence of an international monetary system with a specific structure was barely recognized in the U.S. However, beginning in the late fifties and continuing through the sixties, the U.S. experienced serious balance of payments deficits that had a devastating impact on the existing international monetary structures. The tendency towards permanent inflation is rooted in the various techniques that post-World War II capitalism has used to avert the periodic crises that characterized the classical business cycle. But a particular country's rate of inflation at a particular time depends on a variety of factors, including the combatitiveness of its working class, the degree of monopoly power in pricing decisions, the level of economic maturity, the politically tolerable level of unemployment, and the political capital of the government in power.