preview

Should A Gold Standard Remain In The Current Float-Based System

Decent Essays
Open Document

Case Study Two: Gold Standard
A Brief History In order to be able to consider the question of whether the United States should adopt a gold standard, remain in the current float-based system, or use some other system it is first necessary to reflect our history. Over the years, the United States has partaken in multiple monetary systems, including bimetallic systems, a fiat monetary system, a full gold standard, and a partial gold standard. The gold standard is a monetary system in which the value of currency is defined in terms of gold and countries agree to convert paper money into a fixed amount of gold (Investopedia, 2008). According to the article” FDR takes United States off gold standard”, President Roosevelt went off the gold standard …show more content…

Our current free capital flow policy allows for a low-interest rate environment, high emerging-market growth prospects, commodity booms, and financial reform all of which could not be accomplished under the gold standard (Rummel, 2010). Even though the gold standard was traditionally valued for providing a single common currency around the world, it eventually collapsed when countries became unwilling to go through the adjustment process. The gold standard would not work due to the need to hold large gold reserves in order to keep up with the volatile nature of supply and demand for currency and the gold standard does not match the supply of money with the need for liquidity (Investopedia, 2008). Not to mention that a sudden influx of gold would cause inflation to rise and a sudden loss of gold would create deflation, forcing prices and wages to fall resulting in a recession. Most importantly if we have learned anything from history, it is that the Bretton Woods experience demonstrated that when supply and demand pressures get too great, a fixed exchange rate system has a tendency to buckle (Case Studies,

Get Access