Word: franc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Inflation is as typically French as are street demonstrations-and often the two are linked. All French governments tend to grapple vainly with the problem. Premier Paul Ramadier fought a game but losing battle in 1947; Premier Antoine Pinay launched a "Save the Franc" campaign in 1952. Now De Gaulle is struggling against the same hydraheaded enemy: rising prices, up 16% in three years; wage boosts, which only increase the cost spiral; and the fury of farmers...
...Alsace-Lorraine, is a member of the small French Protestant elite that has played a role in French banking out of proportion to its numbers. He joined the French treasury in 1936 after graduation from Paris' Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, went underground as a Resistance fighter after France's fall in 1940, and spent the war's final months in Buchenwald. His education in international monetary affairs began in 1947, when he became an alternate member of the IMF board. In a succession of important French administrative posts, he helped conceive and carry out the devaluation...
...monetary expert, spent most of his life trying to get men and nations to face the truth before midnight-the cold, hard truth of fiscal discipline. With a rare talent for understanding politics as well as economics, he was a master of compromise-and a stickler for principle. When France's franc was faltering, he told the imperious Charles de Gaulle: "Mon général, you spoke about restoring the esteem of France. I do not think there will ever be esteem for a country that has a bad currency." When he died of a heart attack...
...architect who had built an entire city in India, the site of the proposed building at Harvard University must have looked no bigger than a 50-franc note. The new Visual Arts Center that Harvard wanted France's irascible Le Corbusier to build was to stand between the neo-Georgian Faculty Club on busy Quincy Street and the more heavy-handed neo-Georgian Fogg Art Museum only yards away. How could the master of "brutal"' architecture put up anything that would not look like a brash intruder? Last week the center was in full operation, and Harvard...
While French businessmen generally applaud this "voluntary" plan, most feel that it involves a restrictive kind of market sharing, and some wonder whether it has contributed as much to economic growth as have the Common Market and the stabilization of the franc. In some cases Le Plan, like many French wines, does not travel very well. Britain's Neddy and Nicky are hamstrung right now, primarily because the government wants wages held in line with productivity-and the unions are unwilling to go that far for the Tories. In Italy, Planning Chief Ugo La Malfa hopes for everything from...