The Trans-Pacific Partnership looks like a giant step toward the end of sovereign nations.

[pampango]

43. The TPP be the end of the Bretton Woods? The intent of FDR's 1944 conference is still alive.

The Bretton Woods Conference took place in July 1944, but some of its core accords did not become operative until December 1958, when all European currencies became convertible. The IMF was developed as a permanent international body. The summary of agreements states, "The nations should consult and agree on international monetary changes which affect each other. They should outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to world prosperity, and they should assist each other to overcome short-term exchange difficulties." The IBRD was created to speed up post-war reconstruction, to aid political stability, and to foster peace. This was to be fulfilled through the establishment of programs for reconstruction and development.

The main terms of this agreement were:

Formation of the IMF and the IBRD, which is today part of the World Bank.
Adjustably pegged foreign exchange market rate system: The exchange rates were fixed, with the provision of changing them if necessary.
Currencies were required to be convertible for trade related and other current account transactions.
As it was possible that exchange rates thus established might not be favourable to a country's balance of payments position, the governments had the power to revise them by up to 10%.
All member countries were required to subscribe to the IMF's capital.

Encouraging open markets

The seminal idea behind the Bretton Woods Conference was the notion of open markets. In Henry Morgenthau's farewell remarks at the conference, he stated that the establishment of the IMF and the World Bank marked the end of economic nationalism. This meant countries would maintain their national interest, but trade blocks and economic spheres of influence would no longer be their means. The second idea behind the Bretton Woods Conference was joint management of the Western political-economic order, meaning that the foremost industrial democratic nations must lower barriers to trade and the movement of capital, in addition to their responsibility to govern the system.

Failed proposal
International Trade Organization

The Conference also proposed the creation of an International Trade Organization (ITO) to establish rules and regulations for international trade. The ITO would have complemented the other two Bretton Woods proposed international bodies: the IMF and the World Bank. The ITO charter was agreed on at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Employment (held in Havana, Cuba, in March 1948), but the charter was not ratified by the U.S. Senate. As a result, the ITO never came into existence. However, in 1995, during the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations established the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the replacement body for GATT. The GATT principles and agreements were adopted by the WTO, which was charged with administering and extending them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Monetary_and_Financial_Conference

The Bretton Woods conference in July, 1944 was FDR's effort to restructure post-war international politics and economics so that it was more multilaterally run by international organizations like the UN, IMF, World Bank and the ITO. The ITO was rejected by the republican senate as too injurious to national sovereignty but eventually came into being 50 years later in the form of the WTO.