| ▲ | paulddraper a day ago | ||||||||||||||||
> The Gilded Age Which saw 40% increase in median real wages over 30 years. [1] > It should also be noted that the gold standard did not bring any kind of price stability: Prices are *475%* what they were 50 years ago, far exceeding price changes under the gold standard. > Further, sticking to the gold standard made the Great Depression worse as it reduced flexibility and options of central banks had, and made deflation worse: It did make deflation worse. Deflation = Bad is an assumed tenant of modern economics. > The sooner countries left the gold standard the sooner they started recovering from the Great Depression: By a certain definition. The US did not really leave the gold standard until 1971 (which coincidentally, is when inflation really started to take off). | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | throw0101d 21 hours ago | parent [-] | ||||||||||||||||
> Which saw 40% increase in median real wages over 30 years. [1] Which occurred in spite of the Gold Standard, rather than because of it: * https://econbrowser.com/archives/2012/09/the_gold_standa_1 There were major periods of instability during that period. Growth that is unlikely to be repeated: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_American_... > Prices are 475%* what they were 50 years ago, far exceeding price changes under the gold standard.* And wages would have been worse under a Gold Standard: * https://econbrowser.com/archives/2012/09/return_to_the_g > It did make deflation worse. Deflation = Bad is an assumed tenant of modern economics. It is not an assumed tenant, it is (or was for many millions) a lived experience. Let us say a farmer had taken out a mortgage in 1928, and let us say his mortgage payment was US$20 (equivalent of 1 oz. of gold). In May 1929 he would have had to have sold 114 pounds of cotton to earn $20 (or 18 bushels of wheat, 23 of corn, 44 of oats). By May 1932 he would have had to sold 369 pounds of cotton (or 38 bushels of wheat, …): * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/030439... * https://econbrowser.com/archives/2012/02/why_not_abolish And it would have been the same for selling any good or service: to pay whatever debts you had (mortgage, car/business/student loans) you would have to work more to earn the same amount of money. Is that good? | |||||||||||||||||
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