gold, page-453

Anything beats gold long term.

In 1970 gold was $36, now it's $1231, and increase of 34 times.

In 1970 a Sydney house was $18,700, now it's $1,026,000 an increase of 55 times. (excluding rent)

The gold companies that existed on the XGD years ago are no longer there either but that doesn't make the index irrelevant.
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One argument follows that in the long-term, gold's high volatility when compared to stocks and bonds, means that gold does not hold its value compared to stocks and bonds:^[54]
To take an extreme example [of price volatility], while a dollar invested in bonds in 1801 would be worth nearly a thousand dollars by 1998, a dollar invested in stocks that same year would be worth more than half a million dollars in real terms. Meanwhile, a dollar invested in gold in 1801 would by 1998 be worth just 78 cents.<sup>[54]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_as_an_investment[/sup]</sup>