Bernanke's Massive Lie: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression

Bernanke's Great Fib - The "Gold Standard" and the Great Depression
By Jake Towne
Published 10/07/09

The claim that the "gold standard" caused or worsened the Great Depression debunked.

The purpose of the following is to argue that the "gold standard," as understood by most of the public, did not cause or worsen the Great Depression as current FED Chairman Ben Bernanke has based many of his papers, speeches, and, to a large extent, his entire career on. In our contemporary times, I do believe this blame must be firmly rejected and monetary policy should, at the very least, be debated in a national forum. Indeed many other economists, such as the Friedman family, Anna Schwartz, Alan Greenspan, and Jeffrey "Shock Doctor" Sachs, have all propagated this lie. (photo)

Read more:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=251

 

Of course the Gold standard was not responsible for the Great Depression. But it was a useful tool to those building the crisis.

It is a coincidence that during these period of "depression" US Banks accumulated tons and tons of GOLD?? and yet later abolished the gold standard once the vaults were full??

 

What do you expect? His career and reputation is at stake, of course he's going to attack sometimes that so many people has pointed out a solution and is a direct opposite of the kind of fiat currency system that we all currently use.

 

And then the dollar was devalued by raising the official price of gold.

 

Yes, the "Gold Standard" that leveraged margin 100 to 1.

Yea, okay.

 

Just curious. What would happen to gold price if the greenback should lose its reserve currency status as it's currently being suggested from various quarters around the globe?

 

That was one of the most inaccurate and useless articles I have ever read.

 

I agree... This article was a bunch of drivel, IMHO.

 

The article author simply has a different definition of 'gold standard' then Bernanke. Change Bernanke's words to "Countries with central bank fixing the gold price had worse economic performance in the 30's" and the author wont have anywhere to hide, the evidence presented by Bernanke in his book is quite large.

CBs fixing the gold price instead of say, targeting the growth of the money supply had much bigger deflation and worse economic conditions than the countries who stopped the fixing('left the gold standard')

 

And has there been any study on these countries' performance after they have gotten out of their deep(er) slump as well?