CT,No evidence?Take three periods: 1970-80, 80-90, 90-00 and...

CT,

No evidence?

Take three periods: 1970-80, 80-90, 90-00 and 00-10.

Check inflation from the start to the end of each period and do the same for the POG.

Yes, I'm being selective (as you were), yes, you can manipulate the data, no, I don't think inflation is the only reason for the rise of the POG... Yes, you can find two commentators or economists or politicians or investors (or historians) with similar credentials who will sit on opposite sides of the fence. Ask ten people why they buy gold and you might get 10 different answers. Gold was a risk trade, a safety trade,a currency trade, a hedge against inflation, a hedge against deflation and in a bubble - and that's just the last 6 mths...

Cheers,

C12


PS: If you want to make the argument for using long term numbers ("the coincidental claim about gold and inflation are correlated... breaks down with any long term analysis") maybe you should go back a bit further than 1981-2001... the old nugget about the price of an ounce of gold and a suit/toga isn't an old nugget without reason.