The best thing about a gold standard is that governments can’t print money, so the stupidity of almost everything they do will be more apparent, as it’d require an increase in taxes or debt.
Interestingly, there is a split in the Austrian School of Economics about the gold standard. I think both these ideas exist in the context of the bank-issued notes, instead of government currency. Murray Rothbard advocated a mandatory 100% gold standard, by which laws would require banks to carry gold for every note they issue. Ludwig Von Mises, while believing this was best, didn’t trust government to wield that power. He advocated “free banking,” which would allow banks to debase their notes, and customers to make decisions accordingly.
I’m partial to Mises’s free market approach, but followers of the Austrian School all agree on one thing: government control of the printing press is very, very bad.
“Russia has become the first major country to call for a partial restoration of the Gold Standard to uphold discipline in the world financial system.” (Read more from telegraph.co.uk)