The Gold Standard as a Major cause of the Depression

Gold is still significantly on demand and has an intrinsic value that cannot be compared to many currencies as its supply cannot be replenished.  The article characterizes one of the major causes of the Great Depression to be the Gold Standard. In lecture we learned this to be true, along with the Stock Market Crash and the Bank Panics. The Gold Standard maintained a fixed exchange rate that forced domestic interest rates through the roof as French interest rates increased. Government was able to use neither fiscal nor monetary policy to stimulate the economy. The US remained on the Gold Standard in order to keep foreign investments strong and it wasn’t until they got rid of it that the economy was able to stabilize. 

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/gold-standard-supporters-are-lunatics-and-hacks-nouriel-roubini-44206-3-1.html