Back in the world of floating exchange rates, countries wishing to have a trading advantage can manipulate their currency to be low and thereby have ultra-competitive prices for export goods.
As the sick man of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations, Japan could count on the forbearance of other members as it waded into the foreign-exchange markets to manipulate its currency.
The notion that such an impersonal gold standard actually produces better results than smart men and women with the power to manipulate interest rates and currency values may be counter-intuitive.