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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 2126466, member: 27832"]I challenge the claim that "the US economy was much stronger when the dollar was backed by gold". First, it requires a definition of "stronger". You could claim that the US economy was "stronger" in the late 1800s than it is now, or you could claim that it was weaker; there's enough evidence in either direction that the argument would never end. Second, you need to nail down what you mean by "backed by gold". Did that start in 1834, or 1900, or are you including the bi-metallic standard? Did it end in 1933, or in 1971? Finally, "struggled mightily" is a meaningless term. "Mighty struggle" is kind of what a large economy is. Was the economy "struggling" in the glory days of the late 1990s? In the 1950s? Were the brutal depression of the early 1840s, or the Panic of 1857, or the Panic of 1884, or the Panic of 1893 (partly caused by a run on gold reserves), or any of the other panics, recessions and depressions of the period, somehow not "struggles"?[/QUOTE]