Agreed, although I'm not at all familiar with that era (not really much before the bus at the end of the 19th century, I too need to read Friedman's tome, right after I finish
Human Action and 15 other good economic books :-) but I know this is
very complicated.
For the Jackson bust I just cite the specie payment requirement because it was a shock to the system of a bad sort. Jackson intended to pop a bubble but I'm not sure he thought the result would be as bad or as long as it turned out to be.
The only gold "causal link" I (currently) believe in is that it is good to have during a deflation, since it's "The only liquidity that doesn't depend on anyone else's liquidity," to quote an essay in the newsletter of William Rees-Mogg and James Davidson (although it's probably not unique in having that property).
