The mind boggles at this: Gold's price bottomed in 2001 at $257. Gold was a rotten investment, 1980?2001: $850 to $257. Silver was worse: $50 to $4. Yet consumer prices rose by about 100%.
Fact: gold did terribly in a time of steady monetary inflation and steady price inflation. The precious metals bubble of 1979 popped in January 1980 in response to the FED's tighter-money policy. Gold has never come back to its January 1980 peak: $2,100 in 1980 dollars.
$2100 in 1980! That's a fortune back then. At 4% inflation you need about $7200 to meet that purchasing power today. In 1980 you would've been laughing all the way to the bank if you cashed in.
