"Many thanks for your answer, but I think you missed the point of my question [Ed: Email 1 on Tuesday], which is not a proposal, i.e.:

1) What could keep 3 central banks from acting together and without consultation of their other partners, and, above all the USA, by guaranteeing gold for the 850 million [Ed: 850 billion?] euros in circulation? Did Roosevelt not do the same thing in 1933-34?

2) Would it not put an immediate end to the loss of credibility of the euro and other than that

3) What could be the consequences of such an act, positive or negative, as opposed to a currency blowing up?

4) I don't see why pegging the euro, at least temporarily, to something the citizen has confidence in across the world is so dramatically absurd in view of the present despair. But I am fully aware that no present politician or economist dreadfully frightened of losing his/her job so richly remunerated would be or could be for any such idea. But it doesn'
t answer the above question. Could the three central banks do it if they wanted to?

5) With regards to wet dreams: if my memory doesn't fail me, they have been embarrassing but never unpleasant and were, without a doubt, thank heavens, the prelude to the discovery (when applied to reality) of very exciting and marvellous adventures both of which, I at least, prefer to nightmares…( As a matter of fact, the first time a wet dream occurred for the young future king Louis XIV, it was celebrated as a major event...) Best regards, above all good health, inspiration and peace for you and your family, as well as for Eoin.

"Your faithful Roubini Quack"

David Fuller's view Thank you for this clarification, your personal good wishes which I return, and apologies for missing the point of your email on Tuesday.

US President Franklin Roosevelt did indeed devalue the US dollar in 1933, via Executive Order 6102, but this was a nightmare for many investors because he confiscated private holdings of gold in the process. People were required to turn in their gold to the Federal Reserve in exchange for the paltry sum of $20.67 per troy ounce, equivalent to $350.43 today, according to Wikipedia. The price of gold was simultaneously raised to $35 for international transactions and fixed at that price until President Richard Nixon scrapped the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971.


My British father-in-law, who was living and working in the States at the time and had taken out US citizenship, loathed Roosevelt as a consequence of the confiscation of private holdings of gold.

You have proposed a novel plan - indeed, another "major event" - but leaving aside the probable confiscation of private holdings of gold that would be required, what would prevent individuals, banks and other institutions, and foreign sovereign wealth funds from cashing in their euros and gold-backed bonds for the yellow metal? Is that not what French President Charles de Gaulle did?