Word: frenchmen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...bring down the franc, France remains troubled and uneasy. Prices are rising. So are taxes, as a part of De Gaulle's new austerity program. Unrest continues to ripple across France's universities and factories, the centers of last spring's upheavals. All over the country, Frenchmen are worried that fresh economic crises or new disorders may break out. Some questioned the ability of De Gaulle and Premier Couve de Murville to cope with a new onset of troubles. The uneasiness extends into the top echelons of De Gaulle's party. Says Gaullist Secretary-General Robert...
...more mundane level, France's political malaise has had direct economic consequences. At the moment, France is seized by a giant buying spree. Fearing an eventual devaluation of the franc, Frenchmen are sinking their savings into goods. Two months ago, there were 10,000 color-television sets in all of France; now there are 70,000. Washing machines, record players and other appliances are being snapped up at a similar pace. Peugeot is receiving 500 orders a day for its most expensive ($3,000) model, the new 504, even though it can produce only...
Actually, the French economy is not as sick as many Frenchmen seem to suspect. Owing to tight currency controls, the huge speculative outflow of francs has been stopped. Some $500 million in francs has returned to France in the past month. Furthermore, despite the franc's recent weakness, France still possesses some $3.5 billion in gold and foreign currency reserves plus nearly $4 billion in standby credits from the International Monetary Fund and her Western trading partners. Even so, the nagging worry remains either that the austerity program will bring on a recession or that runaway prices will force...
...France's malaise are mainly psychological. As Charles de Gaulle this week makes his annual New Year's Day television address to the French people, he will very likely attempt to conjure France out of her melancholy. It will be a difficult task, since many disgruntled Frenchmen at present feel that the avuncular oracle finally has lost his touch, his matchless rhetoric its meaning. But as he has often displayed in the past, De Gaulle, the politician of catastrophe, can be at his best when France is at her worst...
...rallied a bit in international trading. The pound gained after Britain reported that rising exports had lessened its chronic trade deficit during November. The franc rose even though France announced a $200 million November trade deficit, triple that of October. The money was stronger because, for the moment, most Frenchmen seemed to be accepting De Gaulle's stringent curbs. But the real test will begin early next year, when unions are expected to demand pay increases...