Understanding this pillar
What this pillar measures
The alternative-asset pillar: explaining nominal gold repricing separately from consumer-price inflation.
The intended comparison divides a consistent gold-price series by a stated August 1971 baseline. The former FRED gold fixing series is no longer available, so this page currently has no reported value or historical chart. The explanation remains available without substituting an invented quote.
How to read the chart
A price multiple would describe the ratio to the chosen baseline. It would not be an annualized return, an inflation rate, or the percentage of purchasing power retained by the dollar. The exact baseline, currency, and pricing convention would need to remain consistent.
Illustration only: a move from $100 to $250 is a 2.5× price multiple and a 150% nominal increase. After consumer prices double, the price ratio relative to that consumer-price change would be 1.25× before any costs.
What moves this measure
A market price is determined through trading and can move either way; a constant upward rate is not an observed gold price.
Changing the start date or mixing different pricing conventions can change a comparison substantially.
What it does not tell you
No current gold quote or multiple is provided here while the verified source is unavailable.
Even a valid spot-price history would not include a particular investor’s storage costs, spreads, fees, taxes, or product tracking differences.
When the numbers change
This pillar remains unavailable until a suitable replacement source is verified. It does not run an estimated clock or reuse a stale figure as a current quote.
Does a rising gold price prove an equal loss of dollar purchasing power?
No. An asset-price ratio and a broad consumer-price measure describe different things. Use the purchasing-power pillar for the CPI-based comparison.
Sources and methodology
The former comparison divided gold prices by an August 1971 baseline. The underlying series is no longer available, so there is currently no chart or reported multiple. A gold-price multiple is not an inflation index.