We had a balanced budget AND surplus (actual debt reduction) under President Eisenhower, well after the establishment of the Federal Reserve.
Thanks to fiat currency and the Marxist in the Whitehouse, we are on the verge of an economic tsunami.
We had debt and depressions prior to the establishment of the Federal Reserve. The ability to borrow money is independent of the existence of the Federal Reserve and "fiat currency". Spending - in particular, entitlements, nothing more than long-term payola by politicians to voters - is the source of our current fiscal nightmare and would not be assuaged in the least by a return to the gold standard.
The solution is to cut spending - not re-denominate the debt and value of what is spent (which is all a gold standard would do).
“We had a balanced budget AND surplus (actual debt reduction) under President Eisenhower, well after the establishment of the Federal Reserve.”
That occurred for only one year, 1956.
The chronic postwar increase in debt and foreign assistance led to the Triffin dilemma, the first sign that the gold linked dollar was in trouble. The first public sign of the problem was the abandonment of silver coinage in the early 60s.