> My argument for gold (if you even want to call it that) is more to keep politicians in check from printing more money where "printing more money" really means

> My argument for gold (if you even want to call it that) is more to keep politicians in check from printing more money where "printing more money" really means a politicization of the financial industry and increasing wealth inequality. The Gilded Age, when income inequality in the US and EU was at its highest, occurred during the Gold Standard: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age The US has returned to those levels of wealth concentration, but having paper currency backed by gold didn't prevent the first round. Further, there was much more wealth inequality, with the aristocracy, when gold and silver coins were the actual currency (rather than paper notes). > The human element was less when a gold standard existed. Wild gyrations of finance and economy due to human behaviour were worse pre-Fed and during the Gold Standard: * https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the... * https://archive.ph/FWKcL https://archive.ph/FWKcL Various 'incidents' during the Gold Standard era: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1896 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1896 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907