Word: dollar
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dollar's long slide in value turned into a headlong, chaotic dive. In Zurich, where selling pressure was greatest, the plunge lopped nearly 4% off the dollar's value against the Swiss franc in a single day. So, at just about the time last Wednesday when Jimmy Carter told an evening audience of French businessmen in Paris that "the U.S. will strive to maintain the strength of the dollar," the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington put substance behind his words...
...agencies issued a terse one-paragraph announcement that the U.S. would actively begin supporting its weakening currency on world markets. That afternoon, the Federal Reserve began buying up unwanted dollars to shore up their price. The move touched off one of the wildest dollar rallies ever, but the upturn was as brief as it was explosive. By week's end the dollar was slipping again, raising the question of whether U.S. intervention in the money markets can buy anything but temporary relief for the battered buck...
...case, the decision marks an about-face in U.S. policy. Throughout much of 1977, foreign governments bought dollars on their own to keep the price from sliding and pushing up the values of their own currencies, fearing that such a rise would hurt their economies by making their exports more expensive. Since their efforts were ineffective, they pleaded with Washington to join in. U.S. officials, led by Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal, steadfastly refused. So long as the dollar's decline was orderly, they argued, money markets were better equipped than governments to determine its true value. Blumenthal gave...
...borrow from other countries under long-standing "swap" agreements. Such borrowings permit a country to buy up a specific quantity of its own currency without dipping into official reserves. Blumenthal discussed the plan several times with outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns, a longtime worrier about the dollar, while both were vacationing in Florida between Christmas and New Year's, and got Carter's approval before the President left on his sevennation tour; only the timing was left undecided...
...hour. They met at 11:45 a.m. in the Fed Chairman's private dining room and agreed on a joint 1:15 p.m. announcement that the U.S. was going into the markets. Blumenthal immediately communicated the decision to Carter. The President had been getting an earful about the dollar on his tour from King Khalid of Saudi Arabia and the Shah of Iran...