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June 20, 2013 6:30AM 

# The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard 

By [George Selgin](https://www.cato.org/people/george-selgin) 

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When I began exploring the topic last year, I expected to find dozens of different, compact histories of the gold standard in the U.S. In fact, I didn’t find but one, which left a number of what I considered to be important aspects of the topic unaddressed. I dare to hope, therefore, that no-one will say (as Moses Hades is reported to have said of some poor scholar’s book) that my just-released [Cato *Policy Analysis*](http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa729_web.pdf) “fills a much needed gap.”

##### Related Tags 

[Monetary Policy](https://www.cato.org/monetary-policy), [Alt-M](https://www.cato.org/alt-m), [Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives](https://www.cato.org/center-monetary-financial-alternatives) 

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