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The article discusses how anti-recessionary policies involving low interest rates might put pressure on the foreign reserve position of the United States by bringing about a conversion of foreign-held dollar balances in gold. The article also examines the influence of monetary and fiscal measures on current account. The article's general conclusion is that those movements in foreign holdings between gold and dollar assets throughout the years, which could be attributed to interest-rate changes, account for only a small fraction of total foreign dollar holdings.

Previous literature believes that a commercial depreciation is associated with higher financial premium and more depletion of foreign reserves. This study re-investigates this belief. Analytical results indicate that a commercial depreciation with higher financial premium and more depletion of foreign reserves depend on the combined influences of the conditions that individuals are impatient as well as foreign interest rates are bigger than time preference rates rather than only policies of commercial depreciation. Non-distortion taxation does not solve the balance-of-payments difficulties. An exact negative relationship between foreign reserves and the financial premium cannot be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]