Explain to an idiot the benefits of going back to the Gold standard

[DcifrThs]

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This is all well and good, but that's not at all what happened in Japan (edit: and, I should say, every other deflationary economy ever, although Japan is the only really recent one).

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Japan's deflation was not a monetary phenomenon, as evidenced by their lowering of the the interest rate to 0 being unable to spur investment. The deflation there was a symptom of an ill economy due to mismanagement during the 80s. The same with deflation in the 1930s, which occurred when there were fundamental issues with the economy (thanks to fiat money and inflation). The deflation in these instances was part of the correction of other economic problems to do with mass mal investment and a lack of savings (the types of things you would NOT expect to see large scale under a gold standard).

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so what would you expect to see under a gold standard?

the "gold standard" i typically hear about from people who share your beliefs is one in which no government can move the price of gold vs. the currency against which it is set, and one that cannot be removed so as to engender complete faith in the standard that would be unchanging.

to my knowledge, this has never occurred in reality. nor could it ever occur in reality given where we are now (it COULD happen but that is the longest shot i can think of lol...the reason is that govts will always meddle with the standard)

so what woudl you expect a true gold standard to be and how would you expect to get there?

also, another question, are you saying that the deflation that occurred in the 1930s was an entirely non-monetary phenomenon?

Barron