However, a gold standard system can make available any amount of currency, as is appropriate given economic needs and the fixed parity value.

FORBES: The Gold Standard, and the Myth About Money Growth

Automatic adjustment, together with the anchor against inflation provided by the fixed parity, has, for all its defects, delivered much better results than the country has been used to.

ECONOMIST: No more peso?

The Turkish lira has depreciated against the dollar by 58% in less than a year while the Argentine peso has remained fixed at parity to the dollar.

FORBES: The hoodwinkers

Although the IMF says it is budgetary concerns which led it to delay giving Argentina the cash it was hoping for, some economists suspect that the IMF now believes that Argentina's currency board, which enshrines the fixed-parity link between the peso and the dollar in law, has become unsustainable.

ECONOMIST: Struggling on | The