hat evolved into the WPA (Works Projects Administration). (Answers.com)
The key Issues of the current financial crisis
The issue most often discussed is the problems related to the real estate crisis. A more serious element, the currency valuation problem, is discussed only peripherally. Bill Dannemeyer, California 39th district congressional representative, wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Times, "In one respect, Roosevelt's dollar policy was more enlightened than ours. The experiment with the floating dollar in the 1930's was ended within a year. In the 1980's there is no end in sight to the dollar's slide on the slippery slope of deliberate currency debasement." (Dannemeyer)
The policy he referred to was the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 when Roosevelt enacted that closed the banks in American in a "Bank Holiday" for inspections before they could be reopened. The act was intended to halt runs on banks and renew consumer and investor confidence and stability in the banking system. The stock market crash, then as now, brought the banking industry under great strain. Roosevelt revalued gold in 1934 to US$35 per ounce from US$20.67 per ounce. He also made it illegal for individuals to hold gold except in the form of jewelry. The dollar was still freely convertible for foreign governments but it took $35 paper dollars rather than $20.67 to purchase an ounce of gold from the US Treasury. (Moffatt) This persisted until the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944/46. This agreement allowed other countries to sell gold reserves to the US at $35 per ounce in unlimited quantities. Finally, in 1971, President Richard Nixon formally terminated the convertibility of the dollar into gold and all currency b
...