Britain coming off the gold standard made the pound more competitive. Prior to that, when pound was backed by metals, they increasingly suffered high unemployme

Britain coming off the gold standard made the pound more competitive. Prior to that, when pound was backed by metals, they increasingly suffered high unemployment, runs on gold and everything. In the US it was nothing good either after a few years since WWI: manufacturing fell, unemployment rose[0], etc. I guess it did not help that Britain ended the gold standard which helped their exports, and US adopted protectionist policy which tanked its trade. I don’t need to retell this all but basically the depression ended with the US abandoning the gold standard and entering controlled inflation. Perhaps the reason for these rosy takes on deflationary currencies in the US is that not many people are still alive who lived through the depression… By the way, the US did suspend the gold standard during WWI. Why, you ask? Well, it so happened that some debt was due, plus people from across the pond were selling stocks in US companies, and so what happens at that point (when you don’t have much monetary control) is ships full of US gold floating off into the misty ocean. Correct me if I am wrong, of course. [0] “Did you know that every 1% the unemployment goes up, 40 000 people die?” — The Big Short.