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View Full Version : The Blessing Letter (1967) - Germany, U.S. Dollars and Convertibility to Gold



allodial
01-04-15, 02:20 AM
Germany promised U.S. in 1967 not to convert dollars to gold
Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2011-01-29 18:30. Section: Documentation
By Lars Schall
Saturday, January 29, 2011

Thanks to GATA consultant Dimitri Speck and U.S. economist James K. Galbraith, a copy of the so-called Blessing letter, written on March 30, 1967, can be published for the first time on the Internet. The letter's text refutes the widespread assumption among German gold bugs that the letter promised the U.S. government that the German central bank, the Bundesbank, would never relocate the German gold reserve from New York to Germany as long as U.S. troops were stationed in Germany. The letter has nothing to do with the location of the German gold reserve.

Instead, the letter, written by the Bundesbank's president at the time, Karl Blessing, and sent to the then-chairman of Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, William McChesney Martin Jr., made this important promise on behalf of the Bundesbank:

"By refraining from dollar conversions into gold from the United States Treasury, the Bundesbank has intended to contribute to international monetary cooperation and to avoid any disturbing effects on the foreign exchange and gold markets. You may be assured that also in the future the Bundesbank intends to continue this policy and to play its full part in contributing to international monetary cooperation."[More (http://www.gata.org/node/9547)]
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Related:

Blessing Letter - Both Pages (PDF) (http://www.gata.org/files/BundesbankLetter-03-30-1967.pdf)
Germany promised U.S. in 1967 not to convert dollars to gold (http://www.gata.org/node/9547)
Former German chancellor silent on Fed memo linking him to gold suppression (http://news.goldseek.com/GATA/1321254600.php)