American Default
：The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle over Gold
Publication subTitle ：The Untold Story of FDR, the Supreme Court, and the Battle over Gold
Author： Edwards Sebastian
Publisher： Princeton University Press
Publication year： 2018
E-ISBN: 9781400890385
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780691161884
Subject： F811.5 internal and external debt, external borrowing
Keyword： 政治理论,马克思主义政治经济学（总论）,经济学分支科学,货币,世界各国经济概况、经济史、经济地理
Language： ENG
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Description
The untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy
The American economy is strong in large part because nobody believes that America would ever default on its debt. Yet in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt did just that, when in a bid to pull the country out of depression, he depreciated the U.S. dollar in relation to gold, effectively annulling all debt contracts. American Default is the story of this forgotten chapter in America's history.
Sebastian Edwards provides a compelling account of the economic and legal drama that embroiled a nation already reeling from global financial collapse. It began on April 5, 1933, when FDR ordered Americans to sell all their gold holdings to the government. This was followed by the abandonment of the gold standard, the unilateral and retroactive rewriting of contracts, and the devaluation of the dollar. Anyone who held public and private debt suddenly saw its value reduced by nearly half, and debtors--including the U.S. government—suddenly owed their creditors far less. Revaluing the dollar imposed a hefty loss on investors and savers, many of them middle-class American families. The banks fought back, and a bitter battle for gold ensued. In early 1935, the case went to the Supreme Court. Edwards describes FDR's rancorous clashes with conservative Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, a confrontation that threatened to finish the New Deal for good—and that led to FDR's attempt to
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