A complete tangent, but its somewhat amusing that this idiom remains popular when the literal gold standard itself is no longer generally considered a figurative gold standard of anything.
I didn’t know where the term “gold standard” came from up until a couple of years ago. I thought it simply meant top standard (and there would be a silver standard, bronze standard, etc)
Orwell says something along the lines of never use outdated idioms in his Politics and the English Language. I'm withholding judgement on the extinctioness of this one until we see how the whole debt bubble plays out though :)
