"Of the approximately 6 billion people on the planet: 3 billion suffer from malnutrition, more than 4 billion are illiterate, about 5 billion live in substandard housing and 50% of the total have never seen a computer or even made a telephone call ..."

			1944 -- John Maynard Keynes lays out his plan for the World Bank at the afternoon session of the banking committee of the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire. Based on the American Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Keynes envisioned the World Bank as a $10 billion loan fund to finance productive projects of its member nations. The fund would be created by member subscriptions, bond flotations, and net earnings from its loans. Keynes's vision was largely accepted by the conference and the World Bank was established, though with smaller capitalization than Keynes sought. The conference also established the IMF and the system by which world currencies would be tied to the U.S. dollar, which in turn would be tied to gold.