Word: franc
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Nearly two years of sporadic strikes, riots, sinking trade balances, a franc devaluation and other troubles led French Economist Jean-Marie Albertini to invent a Monopoly-like game called Ec-oplany. In it, players assume the role of finance ministers and try to outwit each other at running a national economy. By rolling dice, each participant is tossed from recessions to failing harvests to baby booms. Unless he learns quickly, a novice will find himself strikebound, bankrupt or on the verge of civil war in no time...
...large enough to anticipate a continuing higher inflation rate outside Germany, but German industrialists argued for a lower figure. By making German exports more expensive and foreign countries' exports more competitive, the change should reduce Germany's huge export surplus. That will help currencies like the French franc and the British pound, as well as the dollar. In London a Treasury official expressed satisfaction with the size of the revaluation saying, "The rate seems intended to be helpful to other countries." Significant changes in the parities of other currencies are not expected...
Until recently, European monetary markets were constantly unsettled by the 15% to 20% gap between the French franc, which had been overvalued, and the mark, which had been undervalued. Taking into consideration the removal of the year-old 4% "quasi-revaluation" tax on German exports, Germany's actions last week, combined with France's devaluation in August, closed this gap and added a new stability to the world of money. England's Financial Times commented: "There is a better chance now than for many months past that the exchange markets will settle down to a quieter...
...fear that the campaign begun by Charles de Gaulle to modernize the economy will wipe out the neighborhood butcher and greengrocer. Supermarkets, shopping centers and restaurant chains are sprouting everywhere, while the country's 200,000 grocers disappear at a rate of 2,000 a year. In 1958, France's small businessmen managed to quash a move to make cash registers mandatory-and thus make tax cheating more difficult. Lately, however, they have suffered only setbacks. Social security payments have been made compulsory for the self-employed (cost: some $520 a year). Last August, Pompidou devalued the franc...
Shift to Realism. Moneymen seemed relieved that Germany would no longer try to keep the mark at the unrealistically low price that had allowed the country to pile up enormous trade surpluses to the detriment of the economies and currencies of other nations. As the mark rose, the French franc dipped, then climbed back at week's end. Traders saw new hope that the combination of the recent 12.5% French devaluation and an eventual German revaluation would add up to almost a 20% shift in the official values of the two currencies-making the difference in their formal exchange...