You will get no argument from me on either of these points, but the choice here isn't between two different policies with different levers, it's a choice between one policy with a set of levers that don't always work the way you want them to, and another policy with an empty control panel, save a label that reads "suck it up and work harder!"

Eliminating the central banking role means that global economic problems become your country's economic problems, whether you like it or not. The Austrians would rather let the Schumpeteresque "work of depressions" take care of everything, but if you step away from the philosophical a bit, what you're actually talking about is letting people suffer and die when you have resources available to help soften the blow. The fact that there may be negative future consequences of cranking up the printing presses does not, to me, provide an acceptable moral justification for standing by and watching while people eat cat food to survive.

With respect to Bitcoins, and to a lesser extent gold, what I think we're seeing in their prices now (which were both driven up by a whole lot of speculative investing) is the old adage that the price takes the stairs up and the elevator down. Gold isn't going to lose 60% or 70% of its value the way Bitcoins did, but I can certainly see it losing a majority of what it picked up over the last five years within the next couple years as people see opportunities in equities and capital investments.