[Quindecillion]

Why did the gold standard fail?

Was the inflation observed with the gold standard ever as bad as what's seen with government/central bank-issued money i.e. fiat?

[isilofi]

The failing of the gold standard was that it never limited money in circulation. Gold standards in practically all economies allowed for unlimited amounts of money to be printed at the whim of the central banks. Just that the central banks had to guarantee to pay out the set value in gold (or sometimes silver). At some point ppl realized that there wasn't enough gold in the vaults, which is why trust in the value of money (which is the actual backing force) vanished and hyperinflation happened.

So the gold standard failed because it was bound to fail. It was bound on the false illusion that every penny in circulation was backed up by a gold brick, which it wasn't.

[bondarchuk]

It seems like what you and sibling (hef19898) are calling "failing of the gold standard", others would already call "abolishment of the gold standard". So it's a question of what perspective you take on the question whether it's still a "gold standard" if it has already been departed from. At the very least, if a fixed ratio of coin:gold were actually maintained these failings wouldn't have happened (almost by definition). Whether that is actually achievable in practical politics is of course another question.

[hef19898]

The gold standard was, partially, abondonned due to the Vietnam War in 1971. German hyper ibflation, read up on it, it was hilariously bad, happened in the 1920s.

So, inflation under the gold standard was even worse than under fiat at times.