Word: franc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Leadership for the Continent is no where on the horizon. Europe today is governed by political technicians who devote most of their energies to tinkering with domestic affairs to remain in power-and do even that badly. Every major leader is beset by crises. Some, like France's Georges Pompidou and West Germany's Willy Brandt, seem tired and bored; others, like Britain's Edward Heath, are fighting for their political lives. All of them are, essentially, afraid to make decisions that would promote the cause of Europe for fear that they might cause momentary domestic complications...
...down. The dollar has been rising against other currencies because the U.S. has much more oil than Western Europe or Japan and thus stands to be hurt less severely than they by the energy emergency. In the past six weeks the dollar has climbed about 10% against the French franc, 8% against the German mark and 7.5% against the Japanese...
...nations that call the shots in monetary affairs-agreed at a meeting in Rome last week to put off indefinitely any plans to fix firm currency exchange rates. Even the French government abandoned its usual allegiance to fixed rates. It decided to stop propping up the value of the franc, which it had done by spending its foreign currencies to buy francs. Now the franc will probably decline...
...factors have taken the urgency out of the drive to create a new monetary system. First, the world has stumbled into a de facto system of "floating" exchange rates in which the dollar price of the German mark, French franc, Japanese yen and British pound is set by supply and demand-and it has proved stable enough. Second, as a result of two formal dollar devaluations, a further downward float, and ravenous worldwide demand for the farm products that the U.S. grows, America is no longer spilling out dollars abroad at an alarming rate...
Morgan, who refused to gamble there for what he regarded as a piddling 12,000 francs top. But last week the wife of an Italian film producer casually threw away a small fortune at roulette; when the croupier tried to stop her from betting above the current 20,000-franc limit, she scornfully referred him to another table for approval...