Word: dollars
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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High prices, the world's shift from a sellers' to a buyers' market and the reluctance of foreign traders to buy British as long as rumors persisted that Britain would devalue the pound, had cut deeply into Britain's dollar and gold reserves. The danger point, many Britons had long thought, would be reached if the reserves fell below ?500 million. Last week they stood at closer to ?400 million. To Cripps's many critics it looked as if the crisis was the final proof that his policies should be scrapped. They renewed their demands...
Along Taipei's broad, palm-shaded streets, sleek automobiles rushed rich mainland occupants to recently acquired business and government offices. Well-groomed Chinese women cluttered restaurants and shops, jammed sidewalk money-exchange booths, displaying rolls of crisp U.S. dollar notes. Thousands of Chinese soldiers, with the defeat of Shanghai just behind them, camped in the cavernous railroad station or roamed the streets. Civilians and soldiers (1,500,000 in number) were refugees from the communism now flooding south across China. They were also a troublesome burden to a people who wanted their island home for themselves...
That is why Britain is finding it harder & harder to sell in dollar countries. In a few other countries, e.g., Belgium and Italy, British export trade is running into trouble for the same reasons, but, in general, the pound position as against other "soft" currencies has strengthened rather than weakened. In other words, if the British cut the official rate to, say, $3.50 in order to get in line with the dollar, other countries would devalue their currencies to get in line with the pound...
...essentials. We are more certain that devaluation will increase the cost of imports than we are that it would increase the volume of exports. In the face of the U.S. recession, how do we know we can sell more British goods in the U.S. even if devaluation lowers the dollar price tags? If American domestic prices continue to fall, we would merely have to devalue again. The time to devalue is when U.S. and Continental internal price levels have attained stability...
...real trouble with British exports to dollar areas does not lie in exchange rates, but in Britain's high production costs. Get away from currency entirely and express these in man-hours per unit produced. The British product costs more than the U.S. product because British production is less efficient. No matter how she fiddles with the currencies, Britain cannot expand her U.S. market on a long-range basis until real costs are cut by more efficient machines, management and labor. The present crisis is a powerful pressure on British management and labor to become more efficient. Devaluation...