Word: moneymen
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Like a dental patient who worries that one shot of Novocain will not get him through the drilling, international moneymen last week warily eyed the second dollar devaluation in 14 months, skeptical about how long its crisis-numbing effects would last. At week's end the signs were discouraging...
...politically easy. In contrast with the four months of testy negotiations that were required to swing the 1971 devaluation, only five days of whirlwind conferences were needed to bring about last week's large and surprising reduction-which made a total slash of 17.9% since December 1971. Foreign moneymen agreed with the U.S. view that cutting the dollar once more was the best way to end what had become a new and virulent world monetary crisis. When the deed had been accomplished, Treasury Secretary George Shultz proclaimed it almost with pride, saying: "There can be no doubt we have...
Fortunately, tempers are cooler on the equally important issue of crafting a new world monetary system. Shultz reports that in the wake of the latest financial crisis, foreign moneymen are showing more interest than ever before in lasting monetary reform. They had better; the world right now lacks any coherent monetary system. The old system of fixed values tied to a dollar that in turn was tied to a supposedly "immutable" price in gold was destroyed by the 1971 dollar devaluation. Since then, devaluations, revaluations and floats have been coming with dizzying rapidity. The new flexibility is by no means...
Although the mentality of French moneymen seems to have changed little since the Revolution, the methods of exporting capital have. Shortly after the fall of the Bastille in 1789, for instance, the Due de Mirepoix prudently smuggled out 500,000 livres (about $1,000,000) by horse-drawn carriage. Today planes, cars and sophisticated financial hanky-panky are the vehicles used. Businessmen are stashing their hoarded gold and cash in their Citroens and driving across the Swiss frontier. They run the risk of discovery and confiscation, but as a customs officer at the border post of Ferney-Voltaire puts...
...dollar might be figured to be strong because inflation lately has been lower in the U.S. than in most other industrial countries. But the U.S. continues to buy much more abroad than it sells. Foreign moneymen have been especially distressed by news that the U.S. trade deficit rose to $6.4 billion last year, about triple the 1971 figure, despite the late-1971 devaluation of the dollar. Past U.S. spending for foreign aid, military outlays, tourism and investment has spilled out abroad a pool of about $60 billion that sloshes repeatedly from country to country. Holders of those dollars are nervous...