ABSTRACT
Professor Irving Fisher is among the few academic economists who have had the satisfaction of witnessing—even if for a short time—the adoption of their reform proposals by their countries. Thanks mainly to the influence of Professor Warren, towards the middle of 1933 President Roosevelt became converted to a policy aiming at the maintenance of the stability of the dollar in terms of commodities. This idea was expressed in the President’s famous message of July 3, 1933, addressed to the World Economic Conference, in which he said: “Old fetishes of so-called international bankers are being replaced by efforts to plan national currencies with the objective of giving to those currencies a continuous purchasing power which does not greatly vary in terms of commodities…. The United States seeks the kind of dollar which a generation hence will have the same purchasing and debt paying power as the dollar value we hope to attain in the near future. That objective means more to the good of other nations than a fixed ratio for a month or two in terms of the pound or franc.”
