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Fowler assured Giscard that Washington will not rush into a hastily prepared monetary conference, and that the U.S. is flexible and open to negotiation about most of its monetary positions. "I came here not to arrange a conference," said Fowler, "but to start discussions that might lead to one." Giscard d'Estaing had thawed so noticeably at the end that he went so far as to violate De Gaulle's French-officials-speak-French policy by rising to toast Fowler in English. The talks clearly produced a détente in the strained Franco-American monetary relations, and they gave the French a new respect for Fowler as an articulate and careful negotiator.
Flying on to Rome in a two-prop U.S. Air Force Convair T-29, Fowler met with Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, Governor of the Bank of Italy Guido Carli, and Treasury Minister Emilio Colombo. The Italians have been more sympathetic than most Europeans to the U.S. call for reform, and this time the meetings were cordial from the beginning. "We have given our fullest support" to the idea of an international conference, said Minister Colombo as he and Fowler left the meeting. For the first time, Fowler indicated that the U.S. has a time table for reform: talks to begin later this month at the IMF meeting and to end no more than six months later, then an international concord on reform by late 1966.
In Bonn, Fowler found the West Germans more receptive to his call for a monetary summit meeting than the French, but somewhat less so than the Italians. The Germans are not so much worried about the possibility of a money shortage as they are about the inroads of U.S.-owned firms, would like to put limits on the amount of dollars that U.S. businessmen could spend abroad. As Fowler at week's end prepared to move on for talks in Sweden, Britain and The Netherlands, however, he was heartened and surprised by the extraordinarily warm tribute of Bundesbank President Karl Blessing: "Mr. Fowler, we want you to know that you are among friends."
Changing Economy. There is every indication that the Europeans were impressed by the man who has taken on the Treasury secretaryship at a crucial point in U.S. economic history. The office of Treasury Secretary, obviously one of Washington's most important jobs, has been held by a distinguished line of men that began with Alexander Hamilton. In Room 3330 of the Treasury's grey granite Greek-revival building, the office of the Secretary, are made decisions that stretch across the fields of defense, foreign policy, trade and aid, and that affect the pocketbooks of all Americans.
Hardly any decision is taken by the Government without first weighing its impact on the U.S. economy and consulting with the Treasury Secretary. Fowler's Treasury collects $100 billion a year in taxes and pays it all out again with more than 300 million checks. It stores $51 billion in cash and securities in 15 vaults beneath Fowler's office, and each week routinely refinances $2.2 billion of the federal debt. The Treasury mints and prints the nation's money, has 88,000 employees, directs the Coast Guard, and, next to the FBI, runs the biggest law-enforcement enterprise: the Internal Revenue Service sleuths, the Narcotics Bureau, the Customs Bureau and the Secret Service.
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