When some countries began to get rid of the gold standard, it simply collapsed because it was a system that could not work only if all trading countries accepted it. From now on, countries will have more flexibility to stimulate their economies, to the extent that leaving the gold standard has given them back their monetary autonomy and allowed them to depreciate their exchange rates. At the same time, the depreciation of exiting countries increased the difficulties of countries whose exchange rate was still linked to gold and therefore pushed them to abandon the gold standard as