There have been several stories in the news this week about the price of gold hitting an all-time high, reaching more than $1400 an ounce. That is indeed the highest price for an ounce of gold on record, but it doesn't tell the whole story. If you factor in inflation, the price of gold peaked in 1980 at $2,387 per ounce in 2010 dollars. But the nominal price was just $850 per ounce.
To be fair, though, that 1980 price spike was fairly anomalous in the history of gold. The prices of gold doubled in the space of a couple of weeks at the beginning of the year, then fell back almost as quickly. In terms of 2010 dollars, gold fell below $1000 per ounce in 1983, and didn't get back to those levels until 2008.
So while gold is still a long way from its inflation-adjusted peak, it has reached its peak if you don't count that weird spike from the very beginning of the 1980s. To see the trajectory of gold prices properly adjusted for inflation, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment