Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

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Keynes, back in Cambridge after the war and having acquired celebrity status on account of the success of The Economic Consequences, became a prolific columnist writing on economic issues. He also dabbled in speculation on currencies and commodity prices. While the rest of the country was struggling with unemployment rates of around 10 percent in 1923, these pursuits provided him with a handsome living. The main target of his writings was the Bank of England and its stubborn quest to restore the old dollar parity. He argued eloquently and with acerbic wit that the Bank was mistaken in its belief that wages were sufficiently flexible to adjust as rapidly as prices, and that the short-term pain caused by its policies was bringing Britain to the ‘verge of revolution’.ssss1

Notwithstanding Maynard Keynes’ impassioned assault on gold, the Conservative Party's victory in the 1924 general election heightened expectations of a return to the gold standard. Winston Churchill, who had roamed the political wilderness since spearheading the Gallipoli debacle in 1915, was surprised to find himself appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's government. This meant that the decision about sterling's link to gold fell to him. While no intellectual laggard, Churchill never mastered the details of monetary policy and relied on advice from experts in the field. Although Keynes was among those whom he consulted, the establishment orthodoxy prevailed. In his budget of April 1925, Churchill announced Britain's return to the gold standard at the pre-war rate. This soon proved to be a mistake that he came to regret.