Word: france
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...cherish the sanctity of the spoken word as does Charles de Gaulle, especially when he has spoken it himself. Three weeks ago, when an exodus of francs began to threaten the stability of France's currency, De Gaulle loftily dismissed the possibility of the franc's devaluation as "the worst absurdity." Almost no one believed him. Speculation against the franc continued to mount until it neared crisis proportions, threatening to unbalance the entire, delicate mobile of the Western monetary system. The money managers and bankers of Europe and the U.S. assembled in Bonn in an emergency session...
...counted for nought with the President of France. Last week, on the day after his 78th birthday, he brought off the greatest surprise in a long lifetime dedicated to the practice of the unexpected. In a stunning act of defiance against the world's financial experts and the seeming necessity of events, he refused to devalue the franc by one centime. Compared with De Gaulle's other famous nons-his withdrawal from NATO and his vetoes of British admission to the Common Market-the refusal to devalue was, perhaps, not of equal importance but certainly even more surprising...
...result, most of the delegates then concluded that the franc would be devalued. The French delegates gave the grim impression of men accepting the inevitable...
During the session De Gaulle asked few questions. He had on his desk three "position papers" from the Ministry of Finance. One of them projected the situation if the franc were devalued at 9.785%-the figure in Le Monde. The second paper outlined a devaluation of 7.5%. The third report, prepared at De Gaulle's personal request, projected the consequences if he were not to devalue at all. When everyone had spoken, the General gave a brief resume of the trends of thought...
...French view, the mark was so strong that it was pulling other currencies off balance. By refusing to devalue, De Gaulle could perhaps bring about a situation in which the Germans would be frightened into increasing the exchange rate of the mark. That would automatically strengthen the franc by making German goods dearer on the world market. De Gaulle also knew that a devaluation would frighten the French, reminding them of the financial instability of the Fourth Republic before he came to France's rescue...