I think from an inflation adjusted point of view gold in $A...

I think from an inflation adjusted point of view gold in $A dollar terms has been a huge wealth preserver for anyone holding it over the last two decades while all this stimulus has been pumped into the major economies. This in itself is undeniable so for all the negativity around gold it has actually been performing very well as an investment in non-US denominated terms. The same can't be said for most of the gold companies.

In US dollar terms gold is an enigma. I don't know if you read my posts on Narrow Bank

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/bank-watch.2762988/page-2019?post_id=37710613

https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/bank-watch.2762988/page-2022?post_id=37711825#.XIcj-ho_WhA

My view is that US gold is currently in an inverse psuedo-peg to the US dollar and that it sits patiently waiting to fulfill its role as an inflation hedge and a safe haven of last resort due to its zero counter party risk. You can see from the Fed's rejection of the proposed PTIE structures that they don't want big safe haven outlets for the system. By having an endless supply of safe haven assets you ironically and counter intuitively put the system at greater risk according to the Fed. That's part of the reason why the Fed steers people away from investing in gold or even seeing it as a valid alternative to the currency which they control the supply of through a complicated interplay of exchanges between cash and government securities that are mediated by only one or two big American banks in the tri-party repo market. The US$ price of gold will remain in this inverted psuedo peg for as long as the system keeps mismatching the price of money against the price of things. Why is it that during the biggest asset bubble the world has ever seen, with US stock markets increasing in value by $US16 trillion since 2009 we haven't seen any significant consumer inflation? Shouldn't prices be growing in line with this supercharged level of wealth creation? There in lies the mystery.Esh