Bretton Woods Monetary Institute & Festival
“The aim of the Bretton Woods Conference was the creation of a dynamic world community
in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
Henry Morgenthau, Chairman 1944 Bretton Woods Conference & United States Secretary of the Treasury.
“There will never be peace in this land until justice is done to [and with] the Native Peoples.“
The Original Peoples of This and All Lands.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
~
Welcome to The Bretton Woods Monetary Institute and Festival, beneath the illumined shadow of Mount Kodaakwadjo / Washington. The institute and festival are twin initiatives of The Center for American Studies at Concord, Massachusetts, USA, in collaboration with individuals and institutions nationally and internationally, including leading representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of our Earth.
Cornerstones for the work have been set with a series of gathering over the last 7 years that will culminate with The Bretton Woods Global Summit on September 29th, 2020, on the threshold of the 2020 US Presidential Election and 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
As such, the Inauguration builds upon the forgotten peace and mutual understanding that ensued for 54 years between the Pilgrims and “Original Peoples” of this land. That collaboration we speak of as the “First Great Synthesis.”
The “Second Great Synthesis” began, we propose, a century later, when Ben Franklin and the most enlightened Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, Paine, and Madison, invited the Iroquois Chiefs to attend the Albany Congress, in order to council the colonial leaders in their aspiration toward confederation. With the exception of the central role of women within the Confederacy — the bearers of life, the generations to come — the council of the Iroquois Chiefs was recognized and taken up by the colonial leaders.
The “Third Great Synthesis” arises in our time. The synthesis is called for by both leading statements and scientists, alongside indigenous elders. That thinking integrates the cutting edge of modern western science with that age old wisdom that is native to this land and to our earth itself. That synthesis we describe as an enlightened common sense.
The time is at hand to fulfill Franklin’s opening words, beginning with the disavowal, at long last, of the “Doctrine of Discovery” that has been, and remains, a roadblock for the realization of Morgenthau’s vision of “the creation of a dynamic world community in which the peoples of every nation will be able to realize their potentialities in peace.”
The Bretton Woods Monetary Institute is committed to applying the enlightened common sense spoken of to our most deep-seated and intractable problems, beginning with the misfortunes of our current monetary/financial system.
In conjunction with the Bretton Woods Monetary Institute, the Bretton Woods Festival takes up the words of the ancient prophet: Without a vision — human/humane — the people perish. Throughout the ages, music and the arts have played a central role in inspiring such a vision. In our time that role grows in significance, as expressed by America’s reigning poet laureate, Walt Whitman:
“As I write, I see in an article on Wordsworth, in one of the current English magazines, the lines, ‘A few weeks ago an eminent French critic said that, owing to the special tendency to science and to its all devouring force, poetry would cease to be read in fifty years.’ But I anticipate the very contrary. Only a firmer, vastly broader, new area begins to exist – nay, is already form’d – to which the poetic genius must emigrate.
Whatever may have been the case in years gone by, the true use for the imaginative faculty of modern times is to give ultimate vivification to facts, to science, and to common lives, endowing them with those glows and glories and final illustriousness which belong to every real thing, and to real things only. Without that ultimate vivification — which the poet or artist alone can give — reality would seem incomplete, and science, democracy, and life itself, finally in vain.”
On this web site you will discover:
1) A concise and engaging history of the Bretton Woods Conference and the work that remains to be done.
2) Monetary solutions that address our current financial crisis.
3) An overview of our monetary misfortunes.
4) A new economic paradigm that responds to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde’s earnest call at the 2018 World Economic Forum for inclusive growth and prosperity.
5) The indispensable framework for monetary reform and related resources.
6) Year 1 Keystone Projects. The Year 1 Keystone Project for “The Bretton Woods Monetary Institute” is “The Bretton Woods ~ Concord Resolution,” which addresses our public works/infrastructure needs: Toward Getting Our Global House in Order.
The Year 1 Keystone Project for the Bretton Woods Monetary Festival is The Crescendoing Concert: Songs of Comfort & Forgiveness, in conjunction with the completion of the building of Dr. Patch Adams’ Gesundheit Hospital, which addresses all the problems of health care delivery under one roof. The concerts will serve as fundraisers to complete the building of the Gesundheit Hospital, the ongoing work of the Children’s Health Defense, and the historic Mohawk Community of Kanatsiohareke — along with other initiatives committed to healing and renewal.
7) Finally, if you scroll back up to the top of this page (above the summit of Mt. Washington / Mr. Kodaakwadjo), you will be granted a glimpse of the September 29, “2020 Global Summit.” A heartfelt welcome, 75 years after the original Bretton Woods Conference, to join us in setting a further cornerstone for the work. The “Resources” behind these labors and the “Working Circles” that would realize them invite your consideration thereto.
May these pages inspire us to work toward the fulfillment of Morgenthau’s opening words: to fashion, together,
a future worth envisioning for our children, grandchildren, and for the generations to come: All Our Relations.
“E Pluribus Unum / Out of Many, One”
The Sacred Seal of The United States of America
~ ~ ~
Photo Gallery from 2015 Bretton Woods Convocation (if password required, enter concordium)