ABSTRACT
In mid-summer 1950 Howard Smith of CBS was invited to give his views of the new Europe to a distinguished audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He was lavish in his appreciation of the achievements:
In France, the currency black market, which had become, with Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, almost a characteristic feature of French life, has died an ignominious death. That volatile symbol of all French life, the French franc, suddenly hardened, and there is no longer an advantage in dealing on the unofficial kerb exchange. Everywhere I have been, even in crushed Germany, the shop windows are filling up, life is perceptibly brighter, a certain abundance is beginning to grow evident.
