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[Dec. 12th, 2007|03:29 pm] |
In January 1961, President Eisenhower extended a ban on US citizens owning gold not
just in the US but anywhere in the world. Early in the same year, the Federal Reserve, the
Bank of England and seven other European central banks created the London Gold
Pool. Pooling their gold reserves, these central banks sold gold in a doomed effort to
maintain the US$/gold peg at US$35 per oz of gold and save the Bretton Woods (quasigold
standard) system.
The devaluation of Sterling in 1967, the withdrawal from the Pool by France in the same
year and the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1968 combined to overwhelm the London
Gold Pool. The role of France in its breakdown is particularly interesting. The French
leader, General de Gaulle, had opposed Bretton Woods since it established the dollar as
the world’s reserve currency. In 1965 he outlined his views on gold and reserve
currencies in a celebrated speech:
“We hold as necessary that international exchange be established… on an
indisputable monetary base that does not carry the mark of any particular country.
What base? In truth, one does not see how in this respect it can have any
criterion, any standard, other than gold. Yes, gold, which does not change in
nature, which is made indifferently into bars, ingots and coins, which does not
have any nationality, which is held eternally and universally…”
On Friday, 8 March 1968, the London Gold Pool lost 100 tonnes of gold, compared with
5 tonnes on a normal day. Two days later, Federal Reserve Chairman, William
McChesney Martin, declared his intention to defend the dollar’s value “down to the last
ingot”. The US authorities airlifted several cargoes of gold to London, but on Wednesday
and Thursday of the following week, the Pool lost more than 400 tonnes of gold. On the
Thursday night, the Queen declared a Bank Holiday for the following day and Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Roy Jenkins, closed the London gold market “on the request of the
United States”.
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| Comments: |
![[User Picture]](http://lj.rossia.org/userpic/173315/17841) | | From: | ![[info]](http://lj.rossia.org/img/userinfo.gif) k_r |
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| Date: | December 13th, 2007 - 09:31 pm |
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