Home - Index - 1992 - EMU - Cataclysm - Huspriser
Dollarn - Biggles - HSB - Löntagarfonder - webtips - Links - Contact


Plaza Accord

The Plaza Accord of 1985.

See also:Dollar


In 1985, the United States famously gathered economic bigwigs of other major American trade partners at the famous Plaza Hotel in New York
to agree to coordinated interventions leading to a weaker US dollar and stronger yen, deutsche marks, francs, etc.
Between then and now, Donald Trump briefly owned the Plaza--hence his cameo appearance giving directions to Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2:
Lost in New York set in--where else--the New York Plaza.

Full text


This is not the first time for such currency conflicts. In September 1985, now 25 years ago, the governments of France, West Germany, Japan, the US and the UK met at the Plaza Hotel in New York and agreed to push for depreciation of the US dollar.

John Connally, Nixon’s secretary of the Treasury, famously told the Europeans that
the dollar “is our currency, but your problem”.
The Chinese respond in kind. In the absence of currency adjustments, we are seeing a form of monetary warfare: in effect,
the US is seeking to inflate China, and China to deflate the US.
Both sides are convinced they are right; neither is succeeding; and the rest of the world suffers
Martin Wolf, FT September 28 2010

Top of page


The 1985 Plaza Accord precipitated an appreciation in the yen that eventually led to an asset bubble in Japan that burst in the early 1990s, leading to a 15-year period of lackluster growth during which the world's second-largest economy had three recessions.
Michael Shedlock, 12/10 2006


The /US/ current account deficit hit £224.9bn in the final quarter of 2005, a record 7 per cent of GDP.
Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York, pointed out that the deficit was now twice the 3.5 per cent of GDP that prompted the G7 to devalue the dollar after the Plaza Accord of 1985.
Financial Times 14/3 2006


Top of page