This game needs a "gold standard" mode to see what happens to the toy economy with no central bank! EDIT: It would also be nice if the game paused around major events to give you more time to think & adjust. I found that the economy went off the rails if you don't react right away.
The problem with gold is that it's finite. It might be stable, but it's stable for a very small amount of money. The existing system allows us to create a huge supply of money that is used to drive the creation of these monster companies that end up doing things like inventing new microchip fabrication processes and iPhones. If you suck up all the money supply the economy might be stable in terms of inflation but it can't grow.