The U.S. Markets In the aftermath of the Second World War, here was absolutely no doubt as to where the financial leadership of the world had moved. The dollar had become the preferred currency for international trade and investment (supplanting the pound sterling for the first time in history). The U.S. economy was the only major economy that had survived the war not only in good condition but in far stronger condition than it had been at the start of the war. The United States was the only country which could supply much of the goods that reconstruction demanded. The U.S. financial markets were the only markets that had the needed financial resources. Thus, for many years the domestic U.S. financial markets were avidly used by foreign, corporate, and governmental borrowers to help finance their reconstruction and expansionary needs. The U.S. dollar was, at the same time, the only major freely convertible currency. Until 1958 even the major Western European currencies were inconvertible to various extents. Coupled with this was a wide range of laws which restricted foreign access to most of those markets. The domestic U.S. markets were the obvious alternative.