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

[pvn]

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You (I should say most people on this board, but not necessarily you since I don't know what you want) seem to desire an actual honest to goodness Roman-style gold standard (either physical coins made out of gold, or, more practically, a bunch of dollars representing physical gold bars in a vault somewhere), and that's going to run into a problem. If you want your money only partially backed by gold, the difference between fiat and "a bank must be able to redeem X% of its notes in gold bullion on the spot" is a bunch of bank vaults unless X% is so large that it runs into the same problem again, so I don't see your objection having any practical meaning.

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I mostly agree with this. Some half-assed gold "standard" where currency is inflated is much more like fiat currency than a 100% backed currency.

For the record, I'm for a free market in money, just like I am for a free market in every other commodity. If half-baked ideas like partially-backed inflationary currencies could survive in a free market, so be it.