[RA_Fisher]

The gold standard and metalism generally, leads to all kinds of unproductive panics bc the quantity of money can’t wisely be adjusted to the situation. It’s a bad trade off, bc it’s well-known in the literature that inflation-targeting works (and that’s the current world-wide central bank policy since 1991).

[sokoloff]

It also can’t be unwisely adjusted to the situation (usually in the form “too much for too long”).

I tend to think the benefits of unbacked currency exceed the downsides, but it’s not exclusively upside.

[RA_Fisher]

True, during Covid when blue collar in-person maga unemployment skyrocketed, the Fed could have avoided increasing the money supply. I wish they had, bc we all had to pay the resulting inflation cost. How were thanked for it? Tons of Constitutional law-breaking.