I'm not sure about the gold standard. It sounds good, but without eliminating fractional reserve banking, bank runs are inevitable. Fractional reserve banking, though, is the core of the banking system. I've probably got something wrong here, but this is what I've been thinking:

Without fractional reserve banking, the availability of loans would drastically decrease, since the banks could no longer use the money deposited in bank accounts. The availability of loans would decrease, and the economy would be severely bogged down and it would take years to recover.

Does that make sense at all, or is it a half-baked nightmare scenario?