Word: franc
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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More than Beaujolais or Bordeaux or their passionately loved franc, the illicit love affair has always held a special place in the hearts of Frenchmen. The magnificent Château de Chenonceaux is Henri II's tribute to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. French authors and artists-Emile Zola and Bonnard, for example-have immortalized their mistresses in their art. For the past 18 years the popular daily newspaper France Soir has run an illustrated serial titled "Famous Love Affairs." And now comes a bestselling survey of 93 French males entitled The Sexual Behavior of the Married...
...sudden devaluation of the franc last month won wide admiration as a model of deft financial maneuvering. But its ultimate success depends on the follow-through-whether or not France can curb inflation before the trade ad vantages of a cheaper franc are frittered away in rising prices. Last week, as Frenchmen returned to work after their August holiday, the Pompidou government greeted them with news of austerity to come. Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing announced an at tack on inflation that will employ nearly every fiscal and monetary weapon available to modern governments...
Enforcing the Freeze. France confronts by far the most serious problem. Price increases have been accelerating ever since the costly wage settlements that ended the May-June general strike of 1968. Before the Aug. 8 devaluation of the franc, price increases reached an annual rate of 6.5% v. a July rate of 6% in the U.S. Devaluation will add at least another percentage point to the inflation rate this year by automatically increasing the price of imports...
Even politically, the French move proved to be quite the opposite of the disgrace that devaluation has often been thought to be. The financial world rang with praise of President Georges Pompidou's astuteness in cutting the franc when most of Europe was on vacation, in advance of any crisis, and to a level-18.0040-that most moneymen thought was about what the franc really is worth. Contrasting the months of turmoil that followed the 1967 devaluation of the pound with the calm reception of the French devaluation, the London Times concluded wistfully that "the differences show clearly...
...export prices and raising import prices, a devaluation only gives a country time to overcome the economic weaknesses that undermined its currency. The benefits of devaluation can easily be wiped out by further inflation. If French price increases continue at their current pace of 6.5% yearly, the gains of franc devaluation will be gone in less than two years. In fact, devaluation itself has a tendency to accelerate inflation, because the automatic increases that it brings in the prices of imported products tend to work their way through an economy. To make a devaluation succeed, a country must clamp down...