Bretton Woods deliberations in 1944 set the stage for today’s global financial system. (Photo from IMF)

About four in 10 Americans believe in ghosts, and half of them say they’ve seen one.1 While I wouldn’t describe myself as a believer in the supernatural, it seems arrogant to conclude that something doesn’t exist just because you can’t see it or describe it. You know, folks were once sure that the world was flat because they couldn’t see beyond the horizon. So, about ghosts, who can say?

Lately, in fact, I’ve been hoping to bump into a ghost — like, for one, the ghost of Sir John Maynard Keynes, the 20th century’s greatest economist. Actually, I would have settled for any of the 729 other men and women who joined Lord Keynes for three weeks in 1944 in Bretton Woods, a hamlet in northern New Hampshire, where they hashed out a new international financial system. This week, as I wandered the magical snow-covered grounds and elegant hotel at Bretton Woods, I wanted to call up the power of …