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The American economy is strong in large part because nobody believes that America would ever default on its debt. Yet in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt did just that, when in a bid to pull the country out of depression, he depreciated the U.S. dollar in relation to gold, effectively annulling all debt contracts. American Default is the story of this forgotten chapter in America's history.

Sebastian Edwards provides a compelling account of the economic and legal drama that embroiled a nation already reeling from global financial collapse. It began on April 5, 1933, when FDR ordered Americans to sell all their gold holdings to the government. This was followed by the abandonment of the gold standard, the unilateral and retroactive rewriting of contracts, and the devaluation of the dollar. Anyone who held public and private debt suddenly saw its value reduced by nearly half, and debtors--including the U.S. government―suddenly owed their creditors far less. Revaluing the dollar imposed a hefty loss on investors and savers, many of them middle-class American families. The banks fought back, and a bitter battle for gold ensued. In early 1935, the case went to the Supreme Court. Edwards describes FDR's rancorous clashes with conservative Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, a confrontation that threatened to finish the New Deal for good―and that led to FDR's attempt to pack the court in 1937.

At a time when several major economies never approached the brink of default or devaluing or recalling currencies, American Default is a timely account of a little-known yet drastic experiment with these policies, the inevitable backlash, and the ultimate result.

Sebastian Edwards is the Henry Ford II Professor of International Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include Toxic Aid: Economic Collapse and Recovery in Tanzania and Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. He lives in Los Angeles.

Introduction ix
Timeline xxi
Dramatis Personae xxix
1. Gold and the Professors 1
2. A Tragic Disaster 13
3. The Quest for Money 21
4. A National Calamity 30
5. Moderate Inflation Is Necessary and Desirable 45
6. A Transfer of Wealth to the Debtor Class 57
7. The Gold Clause Is Gone 65
8. A London Interlude 79
9. Order in Place of Chaos 95
10. The Gold-Buying Program 103
11. The Path to the Supreme Court 118
12. Nine Old Men and Gold 132
13. Embarrassment and Confusion 148
14. The Waiting Game 157
15. The Decisions, at Last 170
16. Consequences 186
17. Could It Happen Again? 201
Appendix. George F. Warren versus Irving Fisher’s
Plans for the Dollar 208
Notes 215
Bibliography 235
Index 243
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