The only game in town

'Time for a new Bretton Woods Conference. Time for a new Bretton Woods Conf erence. 'The calls grow louder by the day. This is not surprising: in each period of turbulence in international markets, one hears calls to do what t he United States, the United Kingdom and 42 other nations did in 1944: conv ene a conference to create a new framework for international financial coop eration. Nor is it surprising that the impulse now is exceptionally strong, the current crisis posing, as President Bill Clinton has aptly put it, 'th e biggest financial challenge facing the world in half a century.'