To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (24667 ) 1/14/2005 11:39:55 AM From: Tommaso Respond to >>>you obviously don't know your banking history.<< American Economic History (Klemmerer and Jones/McGraw Hill), p. 533: Up until the winter of 1932-33 the public had shown no lack of confidence in the dollar itself. At the same time the public had ample reason to distrust banks, for many had failed. But it is significant that people were hoarding paper dollars, not gold ones. About a month after Hoover left office and Roosevelt came in, the public's distrust of the dollar itself began to appear. During February, 1933, anxious citizens withdrew over a quarter of a billion gold dollars from banks. On March 6 the accumulation of bank failures forced the incoming president to declare a "bank holiday" which lasted a week, during which he closed all banks. On March 9 he forbade further exportation of gold except with Treasury permission. . . .On April 15, 1933, the President "nationalized" gold, that is, he forbade the hoarding of gold coins, bars, or certificates, and required persons and banks to deliver all that they had over $100 to the nearest Federal Reserve Bank or branch.
