Beginning of Essay
The need for an organization like the IMF became evident during the Great Depression that ravaged the world economy in the 1930s. Most of us are familiar with that era through dramatic photographs of farms eroding away in duststorms and of lines of jobless men wai ....

Middle of Essay
.... were consequently forced to abandon the gold standard, which, by defining the value of each currency in terms of a given amount of gold, had for years given money a known and stable value. Because of uncertainty about the value of money that no longer bore a fixed relation to gold, exchanging money became very difficult between those nations that remained on the gold standard and those that did not. Nations hoarded gold and money that could be converted into gold, further contracting the amount and frequency of monetary transactions between nations, eliminating jobs, and lowering living standards. Moreover, some governments severely restricted the ex ....