Even when France eventually abandoned gold in September 1936, little improved. To mix metaphors, while devaluation can create room to move, spending must pick up the slack. So when the monetary authority acts as a de facto veto on all policies except austerity, devaluation simply increases the import bill and deepens the slump. Most states in this period that left gold behind rebounded through devaluation plus spending, even if it was through rearmament. Yet the Bank of France continually vetoed budget increases that would have allowed the French military to modernize, and even mobilize, to meet the German threat. As a result, French defense spending between 1934 and 1938 was one-tenth that of Germany.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 554