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February 22, 2005
"Exorbitant Privilege"
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas reports that it was not Charles de Gaulle but his then-lieutenant Valery Giscard d'Estaing who in the early 1960s first denounced the U.S.'s "exorbitant privilege" as the center of the international monetary system.
Posted by DeLong at February 22, 2005 11:30 AM
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Comments
And of course d'Estaing is alive and well to see Bretton-Woods 2. Plus ca change!
Posted by: P O'Neill at February 22, 2005 12:03 PM
That Giscard said it first is merely a historical footnote--unless it can be shown that de Gaulle himself never applied this exact phrase to the dollar and has therefore been misquoted for the past 40 years.
Anyway, chances are that both de Gaulle and Giscard got the notion (the exorbitant privlege of "American monetary hegemony") from Jacques Rueff, who also gave us the phrase "déficits sans pleurs" (deficits without tears).
Posted by: Bob Killingsworth at February 22, 2005 01:10 PM
A lieutenant he was not - Finance Minister (early 60's, the time from whence the mythic quote comes). [to me, Lt signifies can-carrier; Finance Minister seems a little more apropos.]
[Now, now, Iago was a lieutenant too... Oh, I misread you: I meant "lieutenant" in the sense of "right-hand man" or "deputy"]
Posted by: fatbear at February 22, 2005 01:26 PM
Good comments ... I suspected Rueff was behind most of the economic thinking of the early Fifth Republic ...
Posted by: David at February 22, 2005 01:40 PM
The French obsession with sound money being undermined by America goes way back -- the Mississippi Bubble. I suppose the current one should then be called the Texas Bubble.
Posted by: P O'Neill at February 22, 2005 02:05 PM
So you favor a gold standard?
Posted by: TheMightyThor at February 23, 2005 03:38 AM