I did some research over the years and woke up to what was really going on... Why don't you also add in the financial panics of 1811 and 1837-41? The financial panics where caused by NOT being on a gold standard (ie fiat paper credit), ie printing more paper than they had gold for (THATS A FIAT SYSTEM). For example, the US printed more money to pay for WW1, caused a credit bubble in the 20s which then collapsed into the 30s, (they collected the gold in - at the old $ rate of coarse, and revalued it overnight - the problem was they revalued it too low which they thought they could get away with as it was illegal to own gold and trade in it domestically. They did the same for the Vietnam War until France called their bluff (wanting gold not paper) forcing Nixon to close the gold-$ convertability window. Now you blame printing huge amounts of paper money and the consequences of that on 'being on a gold standard'? Really? Is that what you mean by 'gold standard'? How can there be a financial panic when gold has no counterparty risk and can not be defaulted on? Without going on and on for pages a great book to read is 'The Coming Battle - A Complete History of the National Banking Money Powers in the United States' by M W Walbert. ISBN 0-9656369-0-9. In reality it is the banking catel/money power that caused what you 'blame'