Word: france
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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After considerable diplomatic verbiage, he came to the news that France was devaluing her franc. That was French news, however. The U. S. news was that: 1) the U. S. joined with Britain in welcoming France to devalue her franc to approximately the same level to which the dollar has been fixed, the pound maneuvered; 2) the U. S. made a purely gentlemen's agreement with Britain and France to try to stabilize their respective currencies at this level (30% to 40% below pre-Depression value), provided other nations do not start another currency war by cutting deeper...
...before announcement of the franc's devaluation, attention was called to this danger when Secretary Morgenthau made public a political letter he had received from Senator Arthur Vandenberg who wrote: "If we have anything like $4.000,000,000 on instant foreign call, our financial structure and our price structure rest to a considerable extent on foreign judgment or caprice...
Other Deputies took up the chorus until new Premier Leon Blum's Cabinet finally had to make rebuttal. To Deputy Gaston-Gérard's specific, constructive proposal that a cheapened 'tourist franc' be introduced, the Cabinet returned a flat "non" merely promised to spend a little more "pour encourager le tourisme...
Until his "Baby Bonds" could be sold, M. Auriol turned for temporary succor to the Financial Oligarchy, obtained from the Regents of the Bank of France an overdraft of $10,000,000 on which to keep his Treasury going for the moment. Socialist Auriol said he will not take the franc off the gold standard, will not nationalize but only "reform" the Bank of France and will not fail to balance the Budget...
...improvement of working conditions must increase French production costs by at least 35%-and they are already among the highest in the world, most other countries having cheapened their prices by cheapening their money. Unquestionably this week Le Peuple Souverain thought they had won higher wages in gold standard francs, but every fiscal authority agreed that such wages simply cannot be paid in France, unless the franc is cheapened, devalued and Le Peuple Souverain thus duped. Alternatives would be drastic reorganization of French economy by a Bolshevist or Fascist dictatorship set up in the Third Republic...