Tag Archive for: Woods

The Great Game on the Anniversary of the End of Bretton Woods

/in


August 15 is the 50th anniversary of the end of Bretton Woods, when the US unilaterally ended the last formal linkages between the dollar and gold.  Nixon ushered in the modern era, even if he did not intend to do so.  The only thing that seemed pertinent at the time was that the US did not want to part with any more of its gold, and Nixon feared a recession that would undermine his chances for getting re-elected in 1972. The main demand for US gold was not coming from the Soviet Union or Communist China but from America’s capitalist rivals and allies, primarily in Europe.  

The period after the dollar devalued against gold (and other major currencies) might have been dubbed the first G-zero era.  The US foreign policy in Vietnam undermined its international prestige. Germany’s “ostpolitik” reflected a growing divergence between the US and Europe.  Servan-Schreiber’s international bestseller, “The American Challenge” (1968), accused US multinational companies of colonizing Europe.

However, it proved to be an interregnum. Then, less than a decade after Nixon’s decision, a new era opened, characterized in many respects by turning Bretton Woods on its head.  Currencies floated against the dollar.  Capital was liberated, purposely freed from restrictions on its mobility in several dimensions.  Resistance to new forms of protections, such as Voluntary Export Restrictions and Orderly Market Agreements, ultimately necessitated replacing the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) with the World Trade Organization.  

The US trade balance, and more broadly, the current account balance, was deteriorating years before the capital markets were opened.  This means that historically at least, the export of foreign savings to the US did not cause the external imbalances, even if later America’s capital account surplus contributed to the yawning of the goods deficit.  The capital offensive associated with Reagan-Thatcher came to an end.  It may have ended with the tech bubble in 2001, but we would be inclined to mark the end with the Great Financial Crisis.  

The anniversary of the end of Bretton Woods offers a timely opportunity to reflect on…

Source…

Game Jam Winner Spotlight: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to Steal Treasure

/in

Yesterday, we announced the winners of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1923. We had a lot of great entries that deserve to be played, so for the next few Saturdays we’re going to highlight some of the winning in the various categories.

This week, it’s our winner for Best Digital Game: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to Steal Treasure by Alex Blechman.

Most of you are probably familiar with the Robert Frost poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, which was published in 1923 and as of this year is officially in the public domain. Well, here’s what the introduction of this tongue-in-cheek game adaptation has to say about that:

Robert Frost’s classic poem about stopping in the woods for no reason is very well written, but it’s also pretty boring.

Not much happens. A dumb guy stops to look at some snow, and his horse gets weirded out by him. Dull. Yawn. Snoozeville.

Maybe that was considered an action-packed poem back in 1923, when Frost wrote it, but it’s overdue for an update.

That’s where you, the player, comes in. In this simple browser game, you are tasked with updating Frost’s poem to sate a modern audience’s craving for action, adventure, and… treasure! Verse by verse, you are presented with the poem and given the ability to swap out various nouns, verbs and adjectives for more exciting alternatives. So this:

…becomes something like this:

With some prompting and encouragement, you’ll edit the entire poem in this fashion, until finally gazing upon your finished creation. Yeah: it’s a very simple game, but one that made lots of us crack a smile and give it a second playthrough to see if we could do an even better editing job. It’s funny, well-written and succinct, and we’re thrilled to call it our winner for Best Digital Game. Check it out now on Itch, and share your best poem in the comments!

Next week, we’ll take a look at another one of the winners, though you can always explore them all right now as well as all the other entries that didn’t quite make the cut.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Techdirt.