FRANCE: Disheartening Decline

Day by day the franc sank to new low records for all time last week. At length it touched 29.82 francs to the dollar. This decline was considered particularly disheartening, since it proceeded from no immediate or striking cause. Statisticians opined that the franc is probably still some distance above the critical point of irretrievable decline. They recalled that the pre-War mark* took two years to fall from 48 to the dollar to 184, one year more to slump to 7,350, six more months to crash to 154,000, and a final five months to become invisible at 4,200,000,000,000.