Word: frenchness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
Many factors were involved in De Gaulle's decision. One of them was pride. The West Germans had failed to mask their glee at France's discomfiture. In fact, the French first learned of the devaluation discussions in Bonn through press reports quoting West Germany's Finance Minister Franz-Josef Strauss. After the final session, Strauss implied that the devaluation was a foregone conclusion. "The French government has to decide the extent of it," he said...
...Gaulle, it was also a matter of principle. From the start, the Gaullists have maintained that the crisis was an international affair in which the West German mark was deeply involved. In the 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...
...French and German intransigence sent Europe's monetary system reeling toward the brink of crisis. On the day that Schiller, chairman of the Group of Ten, summoned the world's leading central bankers and finance ministers to an emergency meeting in Bonn, demand for gold in London hit the highest level since March. In New York, sterling hit rock bottom at $2.38. In Swiss money markets, it slipped even lower. The dollar, by comparison, weathered the crisis fairly well, reflecting general confidence that the U.S. was finally doing something convincing about its balance of payments problem...
...others, we too would have to go out and borrow, the only question being: From whom? If we had so suicidal a trade union system as the British, our mark would be just as tuberculous as the pound. If we had as many unsolved social problems as the French, then we would have as much unrest and -as in May in Paris-a ruinous rebellion...