Evidence in economics is messy---and political. Trust logic instead. Of course monetary contraction causes deflation; you don't need evidence to tell you that when people have less money, <i>ceteris paribus</i> prices will fall.<p>As far as the "gold standard" goes, beware: most so-called historical "gold standards" are not gold-as-money, but rather some weird bastardized version, such as "paper currency (partially) backed by gold". As I said: <i>messy</i>. This conflation serves the interests of those who benefit from manipulating the money supply. <i>Messy, and political.</i><p>I take it you mean Rothbard is "amateur" in the pejorative sense. Have you <i>read</i> Rothbard? He is many things; "amateur" is not one of them.