Paul Mladjenovic: Economists Exhibit Lunacy and Confusion over the Gold Standard

"Some conventional and well-known economists have expressed the idea that a gold standard is a bad idea and that the gold standard was a major (and possibly THE major) catalyst for the Great Depression. One well-known fellow surmises that an equivalent of the gold standard is the reason why today’s European financial crisis is going on. In due course, I am sure that they will blame the gold standard for global warming and probably the heartbreak of psoriasis…

The point that critics make is that the gold standard “removes financial flexibility” when a system-wide financial crisis unfolds. They don’t like a gold standard because it is viewed as a “rigid constraint”.
In a monetary system that is on the gold standard, the amount of currency you can produce at will is indeed greatly constrained since the amount of currency (dollars or euros or whatever) is limited to the amount of gold that is on reserve. This condition puts the breaks on the unlimited creation of a currency.

The real problems behind today’s (and yesterday’s) financial crises and depressions have nothing to do with constraints such as a gold standard; the problems come from mismanagement of spending and debt… and governments that are too expansive in their size and scope.

Economists don’t blame governments for spending too much or creating too much debt or printing up too much of their currencies; they blame whatever may stop them from doing so (such as a gold standard). This is insane; it is like blaming the seat belt for a car crash..."

at http://www.munknee.com/2012/03/paul-mladjenovic-economists-exhibit-lunacy-and-confusion-over-the-gold-standard/