Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #352

Text 1 Economic historians often celebrate the widespread adoption of the gold standard in the late 19th century for its role in globalizing trade. By tying domestic currencies to a fixed weight of gold, participating nations effectively eliminated the extreme exchange rate volatility that had previously plagued international commerce. Merchants could confidently price their goods for export, knowing that the foreign currency they received would hold a predictable, static value. Text 2 While the gold standard indeed imposed rigid exchange rates, the underlying cost of this system was outsourced to the domestic workforce. Because nations under the gold standard could not devalue their currencies to stimulate their economies during financial downturns, the only remaining mechanism for economic adjustment was severe domestic deflation. This inflexibility meant that external economic shocks directly translated into collapsed wages, mass bankruptcies, and soaring unemployment. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assertion in Text 1 regarding the stabilization of international commerce?