During the Great Depression, Japan, Britain, Germany, the US, and France all went off the gold standard, in that order. The countries that abandoned the gold s

During the Great Depression, Japan, Britain, Germany, the US, and France all went off the gold standard, in that order. The countries that abandoned the gold standard sooner were also the ones whose economies recovered sooner. (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/modified-goldbugism-at-the-wsj/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/modified-goldbug...) It’s not that the devaluation itself caused the recovery, but tying your currency to the gold standard makes certain recovery-stimulating activity difficult or impossible.