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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Well, it was at that conference that I saw Harry White. I had never, so far as I know, seen him before. because I remember asking Mr. Lubin if he knew who he was. He represented the Treasury. He was extremely interesting. He talked about fiscal problems. He had an awful lot of information about the situation in various countries, the money controls. The whole pre-war German situation had to be considered. Hjalmar Schacht had invented some kind of a peculiar money system. It had some relationship to Irving Fisher's notion of the “Rubber dollar.” This rubber dollar was among the things that was talked about during the days when Technocracy was talked about, pre-1933, pre-Roosevelt, during the depths of the depression. This pattern of managed money, which Schacht had invented for Germany when depression had really overcome them completely, was discussed. White obviously knew all about that. He described it and is effect upon the economy. The inflation had had the effect of promoting the sale of real estate, for instance. People sold houses and castles and land for what would amount to a couple of thousand dollars if you gave it its prewar valuation. So a great deal of property had changed hands.





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