THE European money crisis only dramatized what many experts have long regarded as an unassailable dictum: the free world's monetary system is overdue for an overhaul. That systemthe internationally agreed basis for exchanging one currency for anotherwas born 24 years ago in the resort town of Bretton Woods, N.H. Imbued with a sense of wartime unity and mindful that competitive currency devaluations had deepened and prolonged the Depression of the '30s, the delegates from 45 nations took only three weeks to devise the fundamentals.
They agreed that gold would remain the primary international asset...