Ron Paul and the Gold Standard

Why does Ron Paul talk about that antiquated notion known as the "gold standard"? What is the gold standard, and why was it used and then abolished in the first place? Let's let Dr. Paul himself do the talking! Here's a paper that he wrote in 1985:

One of the basic insights of the great Austrian economists, both Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises, is that money emerged by evolution from the market process. It was not invented by governments. There are basic economic forces today that are contributing to the further evolution of the monetary system, and there is a political strategy that I believe will make it possible to liberate those forces and restore the monetary role for gold. Because of the current economic and political climate, it is important to understand what we can do — and what we cannot hope to do in the short run.

Read the rest of Dr. Paul's take on gold