Some economists correctly predicted that return to the gold standard after WWI would cause a deflation.
In the first place there is nothing wrong with deflation per se. In peacetime it just means the economy is getting more efficient so everyone’s savings are increasing in value. This author name drops von Mises and he’s right about von Mises’ prediction. What he doesn’t tell us is that von Mises had nothing against deflation.
In the second place any excessive deflation was caused by the the war, not by gold. Going off the gold standard didn’t relieve the effect of the war but it did transfer the worst economic effects of the war from the well connected to the general public.
Churchill’s decision as Chancellor of the Exchequer to return post World War I Britain to the Gold Standard based on the pound-gold value before the WWI was a disaster for Britain. Even Churchill admitted it was the biggest mistake of his life. British industries found themselves at a huge competitive disadvantage due to the overvalued pound and the necessary high interest rates to maintain the reinstated gold standard. British industries reacted by trying to impose wage cuts and longer hours on workers. The end result was the Miners and General Strike of 1926
As I said they scapegoated the gold standard. The British converted their entire economy to war production during the war. Of course they found it difficult to compete against the US after the war. But this is a result of the war, not the gold standard.
How Churchill must have salivated at the prospect of being able to just print money at will.