Through aggressive foreign policy, Bruening thus further constrained his own room for economic manoeuvre.61 Without the prospect of a foreign loan, Bruening had no option but to force through another painful round of deflation. And this, to make it palatable to the domestic electorate, required immediate action to accelerate the revision of the Young Plan. On 6 June 1931, therefore, in conjunction with his second emergency deflation decree, Bruening issued an aggressive demand for an end to reparations.62 It was this, finally, which precipitated disaster. The financial markets had been
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