The Bumpy Road to Globalization

BRETTON WOODS

Delegates from 44 nations meet in New Hampshire in 1944. They establishthe International Monetary Fund and World Bank, cornerstones of the global financial system.

OIL SHOCK

The Arab oil embargo of 1973 sends gasoline prices skyrocketing around the industrialized world, resulting in widespread rationing and shortages of fuel.

PROTESTS

Activists disrupt the World Trade Organization conference of 1999 in Seattle. Demonstrators claim that free trade benefits multinational corporations while exploiting the poor.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

In 2008 the popped housing bubble in the U.S. real-estate market leads to the collapse of financial institutions, bank bailouts, and sharp stock-market declines.