Word: franc
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Camille Chautemps, France's moderate and middle-class Premier, had struggled for months with his Communist and Socialist bedfellows to give France a "pause" from the New Deal measures inaugurated 19 months ago under France's first Socialist Premier, Leon Blum. Early this winter the "pause" was giving French businessmen a moderate return of confidence, and the treasury situation was improving under Finance Minister Georges Bonnet although the franc was weak. In the last few weeks, this recovery was halted by a new wave of strikes...
...hectic days which followed it became clear that even the most embittered French political leaders sensed that France was sitting on a powder-keg. The President called in quick succession Radical Socialist Georges Bonnet, Socialist Leon Blum-both of whom quickly failed to form a Cabinet. A valiant attempt was made to arrange a "National Government" in which Right & Left would collaborate to spare France possible armed strife. The franc meanwhile sank on international exchange to its lowest in eleven years...
...Reynaud was immediately asked by M. Chautemps to enter the Cabinet as Finance Minister, as it was thought his presence would steady the franc and impress England. At the Coronation of King George VI dapper little Paul Reynaud, although only a private citizen, was accorded by His Majesty's Government, among whom he has many friends, one of the very best seats in Westminster Abbey. It was really he who last week gained most in France, if only in kudos...
...Cabinets had found effective, disinterested. Under his expert management as Premier the devaluation of the belga-made inevitable by the devaluation of the currencies of the Great Powers -was carried through with skill and success in sharp contrast to the awful bungling at Paris of the devaluation of the franc (TIME...
...thing in particular still threatened commodity prices, however, a drop in pound sterling, dominant currency of world commodities. Last week there was little indication that the pound would not remain reasonably stable, but there was fear that the franc, down last week to a new eleven-year low, might eventually topple the pound (see p. 24). In the long view, sinking foreign currencies may be inflationary, may lead to another cut in the dollar. But immediate effects, as Herbert Hoover liked to point out after Britain left gold in 1931, are sometimes unpleasantly deflationary...