Gold and gold standards have repeatedly destroyed economies.
...Goldbugs argue that there will always be enough gold in a gold-based money system to go around, because prices will naturally adjust downward so that supply matches demand.7 But this fundamental principle of the quantity theory of money has not worked well in practice. The drawbacks of limiting the medium of exchange to precious metals were obvious as soon as the Founding Fathers decided on a precious metal standard at the Constitutional Convention, when the money supply contracted so sharply that farmers rioted in the streets in Shay’s Rebellion. When the money supply contracted during the Great Depression, a vicious deflatio-nary spiral was initiated. Insufficient money to pay workers led to demand falling off, which led to more goods remaining unsold, which caused even more workers to get laid off. Fruit was left to rot in the fields, because it wasn’t economical to pick it and sell it....
Those kinds of contractions and destructions always occurred in cycles so long as money was based on gold. At some point too much gold or gold-based money would be lent out and bankers would call it all in again, collapsing the system as they did so. That speech of W. J. Bryant's was on the money; the gold standard was creating havoc in the late 1800s, and it would work a lot worse now.
...Goldbugs argue that there will always be enough gold in a gold-based money system to go around
I've not heard that argument made. Can you give me some names and dates? Thanks.
The drawbacks of limiting the medium of exchange to precious metals were obvious as soon as the Founding Fathers decided on a precious metal standard at the Constitutional Convention,
Go dig up what George Washington had to say about paper money after the Revolution. You obviously haven't.
When the money supply contracted during the Great Depression,
Except that's not what happened during the GR. Go do some of your own research.
L