United States and the Free World Economy

Abstract

FOR SOME TIME the writer has been pessimistic about the outlook for business in the United States. His premise has been that to protect the domestic gold supply steps will have to be taken which will slow up the economy. The United States' monetary gold stocks have decreased every year since 1957. Although losses have been stabilized in recent months, they came close to $1 billion in the past year and totaled almost $7 billion for the past five years. If we lose another $4.5 billion, there will be insufficient gold reserves to support the dollar under present legislative requirements and this would force us either to remove or lower the gold reserve requirement, or devalue the dollar through increasing the price of gold. Foreign claims on our gold in excess of our total supplies, present a further threat to the stability of the dollar. Thus a number of steps appear necessary to prevent additional gold losses: