Читать книгу CWT Ideology - Алексей Муратов - Страница 10

It is clear that these “bubbles” and the buying up of the world

for dollars has given the world’s elite almost unlimited financial

and administrative power and resources. This will continue as the

world plays by the rules of these robber barrons.

Charles de Gaulle —

the first knight for humanity against

the dollar in the 20th century

The US wishes for sole control over the global foreign

exchange market was transmitted to all the countries during the

Second World War. In April 1943 American experts launched

the global monetary system scheme. World War II was in full

swing. Great Britain, the Soviet Union and other participants in

the anti-Hitler coalition had to pay America gold for delivery

of arms, machinery, metals and food. Conventional bank notes

were worth almost nothing in wartime. The dollar had become

the equivalent of precious metals and the gold standard was

pegged on y to the dollar. Here are some figures: The gold

reserve of the United States was 13,000 tons in 1938, 17,700

tons in 1945, 21,800 tons in 1949. That was 70% of the world

gold reserve at that time.

On February 4th, 1965 the President of France, Charles

de Gaulle, told journalists at his regular briefing at the Elysee

Palace: “Truly it is hard to imagine any standard other than gold.

The international exchange has the highest law, the golden rule,

which is to be restored. It is an obligation to provide balance

of payments for various currencies by actual revenue and

expenditure of gold”.

After the creator of the Fifth Republic stopped talking, the

press representatives rushed out of the hall to nearby telephone

sets. Everyone understood that a war had been officially declared

– a war against the US dollar. De Gaulle proposed that the postwar

world financial redistribution in favor of the dollar as the

main currency not be accepted. He called back to the international

payments system effective before the World Wars. In other words,

he proposed to bring back the classical gold standard where any

currency had real value and was literally worth that value in gold.

De Gaulle did not intend to bring back the gold standard,

which would ensure the stability of the global financial system.

Quite the contrary, he was proposing a return to the role of gold

as the general equivalent. Americans were torn between the

Vietnam War and problems in the Caribbean, they hoped that

the anti-dollar rhetoric of the French leader would remain just

words. However, it did not go that way.

A secret report by famous economists Robert Triffin and

Jacques Rueff, prepared in 1959, informed General De Gaulle

that the forced participation of France in the so-called “Gold

Pool” was ruining the economy. The international structure of

the central banks of seven Western European countries under

the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which

included France, were acting through the Bank of England.

It was not only keeping the international price of gold at $35

per ounce (one ounce is equal to approximately 31 grams) for

the convenience of Washington but was also trading the gold

for their benefit and reporting monthly to the US financial

authorities. If they had to increase the selling volume of the

metal, the pool participants gave the Americans the gold

from their reserves. If the pool bought more than sold, the

difference was shared at a humiliating ratio: half was given

to the Americans, half to the others. France had 9%. Experts

reported to de Gaulle that the activities of the Gold Pool had

caused over $3 billion in loss to the Europeans.

General de Gaulle knew he irritated the US government,

particularly after France had accelerated development of its

own nuclear weapons program in the early 1960s. In January

of 1963 De Gaulle rejected the “multilateral nuclear force”

created by the Pentagon and he took back the control of the

Atlantic fleet of France from NATO. By that time only two

French divisions remained under the American command

instead of the fourteen that were agreed on. However, the

Americans never guessed that this was just the beginning.

In 1965 De Gaulle formally proposed to his American

counterpart Lyndon Johnson 1.5 billion dollars in cash from

the French state reserves to be exchanged for gold. Washington

responded that the US would regard such an action by France

as unfriendly and would have consequences. “Politics is

too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”, – retorted

the general and announced that France was walking out on