The German occupation of France—whose economy had stagnated by the eve of World War II—made things worse. When Paris was liberated in August 1944, the French held an annual deficit of roughly 300 billion francs and both faced enormous reconstruction costs and an inflated currency. Educating the public was critical and resulted in the July 1945 Inter-Allied Savings Exhibition held at the Grand Palais in Paris. Large explanatory panels on monetary circulation and savings financing the war were displayed, helping launch the National Savings Movement.

Charles Louis Havas (1783–1858) contributed to a revolution in mass communication in the 1840s. With a unique understanding that information was an important international commodity, he launched the world’s first news agency—initially using carrier pigeons to transmit the news. When the telegraph reached France, he implemented the new technology to great success. A hundred years later, during World War II, fascist forces became the news agency’s undoing. After the war, Agence Havas was nationalized and became Agence France-Presse, while Havas survived as an advertising company, producing posters such as this, and is today a multinational corporation.