Roosevelt Rebuke Stuns Gold Bloc

Annotated Bibliography

Birchall, Frederick. “Roosevelt Rebuke Stuns Gold Bloc.” New York Times, 4 July 1933, www.federalreserve.gov/publications/bulletin.htm.

Birchall describes the reaction of the delegates from the London economic conference upon hearing Roosevelts remarks on gold reserves. Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, and especially France were very adamant about maintaining the gold standard, so The presidents remarks claiming that gold could not be used as a reserve for currencies shocked these five, collectively known as the “Gold Bloc”.

Eichengreen, Barry. “Number of Countries on the Gold Standard.” Dartmouth.edu, www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/French%20Gold%20Sink.pdf.

This chart shows the number of countries relying on the gold standard to back their currency. As seen, it peaks in 1929, the year of the stock market crash, then drops off in the early 1930’s in an effort to remedy the depression. This is significant because it highlights the importance of gold in the world economy,

Irwin, Douglas. “The French Gold Sink and the Great Deflation of 1929–32 .” Dartmouth University, Cato Institute, 2012, pp. 1–56.

Irwin analyzes economic trends throughout the 1920’s, and how the US and France in particular manage their gold, and currencies in general. Irwin argues that had these two countries maintained steady gold reserves and gold value, instead of “Hoarding” gold, then the deflation throughout the world could have been considerably less.

MacDonald, Ramsay. “FDR Library.” Received by Franklin D Roosevelt, FDR Library, Marist College, 6 June 1933, www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu.

In a confidential letter to Franklin D Roosevelt, MacDonald, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, describes his perception of the effectiveness of the conference. He believes that France in particular is slowing progress, and states that many countries are arguing for a recess or even an adjournment of the conference. American and English delegates are leading the push to continue to make progress towards international help for the global financial crisis.

Moley, Raymond. “For Kings Cannot Err.” After Seven Years, Harper and Brothers, 1939, pp. 239–241.

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