Too much state-created money is by definition a bad thing. And so is too little. But how do we know how much is too much and how much too little? The brief dogmatic answer is that we cannot. We can only “suck it and see”. The gold standard may have been excessively maligned by would-be progressive commentators. But paper money has one genuine advantage. While gold, silver and many other precious metals are difficult to eliminate once they have been extracted from the ground, paper money can be annulled. And the edifice of bank credit that rests upon it can, at least, be tapered off.
按照理论，政府印钞过多是件坏事。印钞过少也不好。但我们如何知道什么是太多、什么是太少呢？简短的教条式的答案是，我们不可能知道。我们只能试着看。黄金本位制也许已遭到有意“与时俱进”的评论员的过度诋毁。但纸币有一个真正的优势。金、银以及其他贵金属一旦从地底下开采出来之后就很难被销毁，但纸币可以作废。建立在纸币基础上的银行信贷“大厦”至少可以逐渐拆除。