Should our currency return to the Gold Standard?

Absolutely it should! It will be the only way our country will truly prosper & be the world's super power. The monetary policies of today (& the last century) have been nothing less than detrimental to our country. We are paying for it now & will be for quite some time.

No, I wanted to explain it all myself but its so convenient when its already written for me, so here you go:

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act explicitly tied monetary policy to the gold standard and the real bills doctrine. The gold standard, of course, required governments to redeem their currency on demand in gold, essentially fixing its values not only against the precious metal but also against the currencies of all other gold standard countries. The real bills doctrine limited central bank lending to the purchase of real bills—loans

secured by goods—effectively tying the issue of money to the value of goods moving through the economy. Ideally, this system would be self-regulating. The gold standard would keep international payments in balance, and the real bills doctrine would prevent the central bank from financing speculative activity while guaranteeing credit for the production and distribution of goods.

The First World War wrecked the assumptions on which the Federal Reserve Act rested. The international gold standard collapsed. At home, the Federal Reserve purchased huge quantities of Treasury obligations to help the government finance the war, so that, with the return of peace, real bills constituted only a small part of its portfolio. Much of Meltzer’s history revolves around the attempts by the Fed’s leaders to revive the gold standard and devise something analogous to the real bills doctrine to guide domestic policy. Both efforts proved disastrous.

Unlike many other observers, Meltzer does not consider the gold standard inherently flawed. It did, however, require symmetrical application—that is, countries with a surplus of gold must expand their currency, even as those in deficit must deflate. Such had been the case before 1914, but in the 1920s, central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, “sterilized” inflows of gold to prevent inflation. This forced deficit countries to make the entire adjustment to any payments imbalance by deflating, giving the gold standard a relentlessly deflationary bias that was ultimately economically and politically unsustainable. To make a bad situation worse, the Fed ignored the practice of other central banks before 1914, outlined by Bagehot, of ignoring the gold standard during domestic financial crises and supplying credit as needed to guarantee solvency. During 1931 and 1932, when gold reserves were falling and the American financial system was collapsing, the Fed kept credit scarce, intensifying the banking crisis and making the Depression worse. Even after 1933, when President Roosevelt abandoned gold, Fed officials hoped to restore the gold standard, but the disastrous experience of the 1920s and early 1930s meant that this project enjoyed little outside support.

Central banks prevent inflation by controlling the money supply and not defaulting on its debt. There is no need to return to the Gold standard.

No, as gold is now a commodity (there was little use for it, other than jewelry before electronics), and thus subject to speculator-driven value swings..

One would not want to have currency fluctuate widely

We should have never left it. The value has to be reset before we could even think about returning.

ABSOLUTELY !!!

But that would FORCE fiscal responsibility.

Imagine the HORROR of Washington if they couldn't just "Presto!" produce BILLIONS of "money" they they could spend on their pet projects and rewards to campaign contributors!!

FIX America.... castrate (figure of speech) our elected officials!!!

Fiscal responsibility DEMANDS controls over our currency.

truth is right. there isn't enough gold now. it wouldn't be possible to go back to the gold standard.

The US $ would be worth nothing if we do that. It was abolished because US was not being able to backup its wealth in gold.

There isn't enough gold in the world to do that with an economy as large as ours.

China holds the largest gold reserves.

So, yes, let's just give up and go red.

Hope you like forced labor camps, 'eh comrade?