Word: pinay
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Dates: during 1952-1952
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Successive French Finance Ministers have despaired over the problem of getting at these private gold hoards. But last week Premier Antoine Pinay, a shrewd businessman, thought he had found the way. He announced a new government bond, the value of which would be tied to the price of the gold napoleon. As the free market price of the napoleon goes up, so will the price of Pinay's bond: unlike the napoleon, the bond will also pay 3½% interest. Since every Frenchman knows that the government can bring the market price of napoleons down by minting more...
Launched with all the fanfare of a War Bond drive, Pinay's gold bond issue brought 17 tons of hoarded gold into the Paris treasury coffers in the first four days. At Dijon a man who wouldn't give his name traded in gold ingots worth 75 million francs (approx. $214,000). The bond issue had to pull in 400 to 500 billion francs to be a success. Pinay, who plans to use the money to finance war reconstruction projects, beamed as the returns came in; he was once again proving himself France's most resourceful Premier...
...Pinay's growing reputation as a man of decision emphasized clearly De Gaulle's growing weakness. In March, 27 Gaullist deputies bolted their party to vote Right-Winger Pinay in as Premier. Last week, on the eve of a vital confidence vote in the Assembly, 47 Gaullist deputies (out of 118) told General de Gaulle that they would no longer blindly oppose Pinay, but would vote according to their own political consciences. This decision may spell the end of General de Gaulle's hope of being elected to power in France...
...Lords, is a withered arm of government; it can delay legislation passed by the Lower House, but cannot stop it. Nonetheless, elections in the Senate give one measure of French opinion. This week half of the Senate's 320 seats were up for election. Result: Premier Antoine Pinay, the commonsensible businessman who has cut prices and strengthened the franc, picked up nine seats for his moderate rightist Independent Republicans and Peasants. Most of them were at the expense of General Charles de Gaulle's French People's Rally, which lost nine of its 36 seats. Once again...
This did not mean that France was back on its feet, or that Pinay had succeeded. But he had already passed one political miracle: proving that the hitherto solid Gaullist bloc could be split, and that a government could be formed without kowtowing to the Socialists (TIME, March 17). Now he was gambling, double or quits, on a return of confidence. If tax dodgers went on dodging, if France's hidden capital stayed in hiding, if stores raised prices and labor pushed up wages, the defense of the franc would collapse. Pinay had done his best; the rest...