In this well-reasoned article, economist Robert Murphy refutes many of the common misconceptions about the gold standard.

I have never seen a statist defend gold. There is a reason for that. Gold prevents the government from creating money out of nothing to help advance the desires of rulers (elected or otherwise). Under gold or some other market money system, the rulers have to increase taxes when they want to spend more. Better for them if their depredations against the people can be obscured by the operations of a central bank creating fiat money.