The US Dollar versus the Gold Standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold.
Today, most national currencies are fiat currencies, including the US dollar, the euro, and all other reserve currencies, and have been since 1971.
"The current world monetary system assigns no special role to gold; indeed, the Federal Reserve is not obliged to tie the dollar to anything. It can print as much or as little money as it deems appropriate. as that of 1929--did not cause a slump in the real economy" Economist Paul Krugman(Wikipedia)