Published: 2022.06.20. The US and Europe could return the "Gold Standard"

The US and Europe could return the

The US and Europe have enough gold to return to the classic gold standard, according to an economics professor at George Mason University. White is an expert on the gold standard and free banking. His new book, Better Money: Gold, Fiat or Bitcoin, will be published next year.
White said that there were three types of gold standards in US history: the classical gold standard before World War I, the interwar gold standard, and the Bretton Woods system after World War II. The classic gold standard was self-regulating, stable and did not require a central bank, while the latter two systems had problems maintaining the gold peg.
The classical gold standard requires that every dollar in circulation be backed by gold. Some analysts argue that a return to the gold standard is impossible because there is not enough gold in reserves. White disagrees with this sentiment: “I think the fractional gold system will work. This worked during the classical gold standard. Banks did not have 100 percent reserve requirements. [...] And yet, prudence dictated that they hold enough gold to actually meet the demands made on them to repay the debt.
According to the expert, the US and Europe have enough gold reserves to return to the gold standard. However, while the gold standard is economically feasible, it may not be politically practical, he said.
According to White, the banking system under the gold standard could look the same as it does today: “Ordinary users of checking accounts and paper money would function in exactly the same way. It is certainly compatible with all the latest technologies in the field of payments, online payments, telephone payments. All this can be converted in terms of gold.”