 There then followed a crisis for the U.S. dollar in March 1968 which had a cascade effect on the international economic system, sending first the French franc and then the West German deutschmark into devaluation, and culminating in a "new" Sterling crisis in Britain in November 1968.These repeated falls in the value of the Pound against the U.S. dollar significantly increased the cost of publishing the American strips, which had to be paid for in dollars, and raised the daunting spectre of further increases if the Pound fell in value yet again.Increasing the cover price of the "Power Comics" to compensate was impossible because of stiff competition (with sales on a sharp downward spiral, as circulation fell victim to the ever increasing popularity of television); so the fall in the value of Sterling made the American strips unaffordable.