European University Institute Library

The money makers, how Roosevelt and Keynes ended the Depression, defeated fascism, and secured a prosperous peace, Eric Rauchway

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The money makers

bibliography

903675854

Eric Rauchway

how Roosevelt and Keynes ended the Depression, defeated fascism, and secured a prosperous peace

Shortly after arriving in the White House in early 1933, Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard. His opponents thought his decision unwise at best, and ruinous at worst. But they could not have been more wrong. With The Money Makers, Eric Rauchway tells the absorbing story of how FDR and his advisors pulled the levers of monetary policy to save the domestic economy and propel the United States to unprecedented prosperity and superpower status. Drawing on the ideas of the brilliant British economist John Maynard Keynes, among others, Roosevelt created the conditions for recovery from the Great Depression, deploying economic policy to fight the biggest threat then facing the nation: deflation. Throughout the 1930s, he also had one eye on the increasingly dire situation in Europe. In order to defeat Hitler, Roosevelt turned again to monetary policy, sending dollars abroad to prop up the faltering economies of Britain and, beginning in 1941, the Soviet Union. FDR's fight against economic depression and his fight against fascism were indistinguishable. As Rauchway writes, "Roosevelt wanted to ensure more than business recovery; he wanted to restore American economic and moral strength so the US could defend civilization itself." The economic and military alliance he created proved unbeatable<U+0127> and also provided the foundation for decades of postwar prosperity. Indeed, Rauchway argues that Roosevelt's greatest legacy was his monetary policy. Even today, the "Roosevelt dollar" remains both the symbol and the catalyst of America's vast economic power.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction: the Keynesian president and us -- A system to save the world: 1918-1919 -- The last days of the gold dollar: 1932-1933 -- The future of the dollar begins: March 6-10, 1933 -- Prosperity first: March 11-July 4, 1933 -- A dollar to stop revolution: 1933-1934 -- A new dollar, if you can keep it: 1934-1935 -- The anti-Fascist dollar: 1934-1939 -- Blood and treasure, 1939-41 -- Whose dollar is it anyway? 1942-1943 -- To the Fabyan Station: 1943-1944 -- The Bretton Woods disagreements: 1944 -- The battle for Bretton Woods, 1945 -- Epilogue: Bretton Woods and after