Currencies were fixed. Balance of payments deficits were modest, as were flows of capital. Devaluations were strictly controlled by the International Monetary Fund. The pockets of the U.S. were deep enough to handle any disruption to the world financial system. By those standards, the current economy would be unrecognizable.
Currency crises are weekly events.
An enormous torrent of capital pours in and out of world financial centres daily. When the leaders of the world's seven largest economies meet in Halifax this week, there will be a note of '60s nostalgia. One way or another, most of their proposals will be aimed at giving governments a little more control. The systems put in place in a simpler time just don't cut it anymore. Among the proposals are giving the IMF more money to bail out distressed economies, enabling it to act faster, reforming the World Bank, and perhaps altering the worldwide exchange rate.