Young Plan

The Young Plan was a program for settlement of German reparations debts after World War I written in 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929–30) by American Owen D. Young. The reparations, set in January 1921 by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission at 269 billion gold marks (the equivalent of around 100,000 tonnes of pure gold) were deliberately crushed. This 100,000 tonnes of gold is equivalent to more than 50% of all the gold ever mined in history (est. 165000 tonnes), which many economists at the time including John Maynard Keynes deemed to be irrational and excessive. After the Dawes Plan was put into operation (1924), it became apparent that Germany could not meet the annual payments, especially over an indefinite period of time. The Young Plan reduced further payments to 112 billion Gold Marks, US $8 billion in 1929 (US$ 108 billion in 2012) over a period of 59 years (1988). In addition, the Young Plan divided the annual payment, set at two billion Gold Marks, US $473 million, into two components, one unconditional part equal to one third of the sum and a postponable part, incurring interest and financed by a consortium of American investment banks coordinated by the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, for the remaining two-thirds.