This book provides a detailed account of the Czechoslovak-American dispute that arose over monetary gold which was forcibly seized by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. After the Second World War, the Czechoslovak gold was found by the American armed forces in the salt mines in Merkers, Germany. Over the next 37 years, it became a part of complicated Czechoslovak-American relations, international economic trade, and political-ideological disputes and conflicts. Only in February 1982, after extensive diplomatic discussions, was a sufficient portion of the gold returned to the Czechoslovak State Bank in Prague. This book maps the story of this gold, how it was seized, blocked and finally, returned. Tracing the path of the monetary gold from its seizure by Nazi Germany in the 1930s to the last decade of the Cold War, the author outlines the main diplomatic steps taken to resolve the dispute, which framed the shape of bilateral relations between Communist Czechoslovakia and the USA. Offering a new contribution to the hisThis book provides a detailed account of the Czechoslovak-American dispute that arose over monetary gold which was forcibly seized by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. After the Second World War, the Czechoslovak gold was found by the American armed forces in the salt mines in Merkers, Germany. Over the next 37 years, it became a part of complicated Czechoslovak-American relations, international economic trade, and political-ideological disputes and conflicts. Only in February 1982, after extensive diplomatic discussions, was a sufficient portion of the gold returned to the Czechoslovak State Bank in Prague. This book maps the story of this gold, how it was seized, blocked and finally, returned. Tracing the path of the monetary gold from its seizure by Nazi Germany in the 1930s to the last decade of the Cold War, the author outlines the main diplomatic steps taken to resolve the dispute, which framed the shape of bilateral relations between Communist Czechoslovakia and the USA. Offering a new contribution to the history of the Second World War and shedding light on East-West relations during the Cold War period, this book will provide useful reading for those researching modern European history, the Cold War, and international history.

This book showcases written dialogue from Brendan Brown and Philippe Simonnot on the subject of European monetary turmoil past and present and what hope there could be for future reform. Starting with the collapse of the gold standard in 1914, proceeding to the brief gold-dollar standard of the mid inter-war years, on to the collapse of Bretton Woods and the heyday of the Deutsche mark and ultimately discussing the euro, this book looks at a broad range of financial history alongside many new and provoking hypotheses about the devastating monetary turbulence of the successive eras, always with a focus on the US monetary hegemon. A highlight of the dialogue is an exploration of how past and future crises could combine to give birth to sound money in Europe – the launch, in effect, of a new euro. In the questions and answers within these pages, the authors draw on global examples and the challenges for Europe in deciding how to adapt to successive monetary shocks from the US, crafting a book that would be of interest to general finance and economics readers alongside students, researchers, and policymakers.