I'd say pretty well, all things considered, wouldn't you? I'd give some data to support my claim (there's been research on world GDP dating back hundreds of years; things of that nature), but I think the nihilists here will deny that any of it is meaningful.
Ummm... have you checked the Fed's balance sheet lately? http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/Current/
Well has the current system worked out well? Just look at the increases in national debt since the US left the gold standard. Look at all the booms and busts created by lending cheap fiat money. Look at the wars made possible through fiat money debt instruments (T Bills) without raising taxes on the populace.
You've stated the first rule of lesson in never engaging a gold bug in any discussion about precious metals. Let him rant.
it is like people saying that true communism never existed in russia as an excuse for what took place under communism the murders and tortures of millions of people.
Worked out great. Before we left the gold standard a man could earn enough money to support his wife and kids. Today, a man & a wife both working can barely pay their mortgage even without kids. I shudder to think what would happen in another 30 years or so.
PragmaticIdeals, your theory would work except for a little 5 letter word - greed. The more money the financial firms make, the more money invested in them. Also, bonuses are tied to company profits, so these companies are going to play with fire until the bubbles the gov't let them create burst. Then, the gov't will give them bailouts they use for bonuses and cash hoarding. Once the economy picks up, they use the saved cash to initiate more bubbles that uninformed investors will bandwagon into. See how GS stock jumped 10% at the faintest sign of the economic recovery?
Sorry, are you saying that all these nasty things (increases in national debt, booms and bust, wars, etc) cannot or are less likely to happen under the gold standard? I would humbly beg to differ. You really wouldn't have to go far to find a plethora of counterexamples.
Legalize competing currencies. Let market forces decide which vehicle is best for store of wealth. What could possibly be wrong with that?
http://www.nowandfutures.com/key_stats.html Just one of many sites which you can find that will re-constitute M3. Shadow Stats probably does the best job. But then, most of this is common sense with the trillion dollar bailouts.