Inflation 1900-1972 : 2.3%
Inflation 2000-2014 : 2.24%
Gold had nothing to do with it. The value of the US currency has always been a based on trust.
In practice the US government did not exchange gold for dollar bills anyway.
The Zerohedge theories of gold just doesn't work.
You're projecting.
US currency is and always has been backed by the US economy and military.
Not gold.
So you think after May 1971, Switzerland and France redeemed USD$50M and USD$191M, respectively, in US products and soldiers? Because my sources tell me they redeemed it in gold.
Has Germany been trying to redeem their US deposits in US products and soldiers? OR did they ask for gold?
So much for your "is and always has been". Seems like depositors don't really care about US products and soldiers, more like, just its gold.
Executive Order 6102 required all persons to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 (equivalent to $376.58 today[4]) per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the recently passed Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 (equivalent to $182,185 today[4]) or up to ten years in prison, or both.
I think central banks still trade a little gold now and then, though , as you point out.
Gerald Ford allowed legalized gold in 1974.
A savings account isn't cash, its an immediately-callable loan from the account holder to a financial institution; for the account holder, it provides an asset with very good liquidity (but perhaps marginally worse than that provided by a checking account), essentially zero risk, but poor returns (but perhaps marginally better than that provided by a checking account). Its a way of meeting short-term spending needs (but perhaps slightly longer term than that met by a checking account).
Demand deposit accounts (both checking and savings) in general are, like cash, basically for short-term spending, but where the bank provides some benefits (actual storage, along with access mechanisms more convenient for many uses than pulling physical bills out of a storage locker).
This is true only in some sense on average. There was in fact both very significant inflation and deflation, but they evened out over the long term. People thus could use gold-backed money for savings. It still was a worse asset than bonds to save in, even if you account for sovereign defaults in that era.