Thestreet.com article today.

Zoellick Pushes Gold Standard.....

Me too. If you can't carry out needed policies without debasing a currency as part of that process, give it up. Fiat money sanctions cutthroat devaluations.The currencies themselves are backed by nothing verifiable.

There are other ways to accomplish policy while keeping an objective standard for a currency. Claims that fiat money are needed to stimulate, or retard, or something else, are specious because other mechanisms can be used. You can have runs on banks because the deposits do not stand for specie, but rather stand for claims to fiat currency. 'Finance', and speculative investments, divorced from specie discipline, are a big part of what got us here.

We weren't following a strict gold standard, even until 71.