Gold Is Cheap. Inflation Is Coming. You Do the Math
The Fed may have to relent, in part because the upward pressure on rates is squeezing developing economies that have dollar-denominated bonds or other obligations. If the markets sense that the Fed is about to hold off, the dollar could drop and gold would probably rally. His view is that "gold offers enormous portfolio utility in today's complex and treacherous investment environment."
How cheap is gold today?
One way to measure it against stocks is a comparison with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It effectively takes 22 ounces of gold to buy one unit of the Dow, which finished on Friday at a record 26,743. The most recent low in that relationship occurred in 2011, when the Dow/gold ratio dropped to 7.8. Then, gold was near its all-time high of $1,900 an ounce.
The century-old peak of 40 occurred in 1999, when gold traded at about $290 an ounce and the Dow stood around 11,500. The low came at the top of the commodity boom in 1980, when the metal and the Dow were at parity around 800 after a decade-long stretch when the Dow moved little. Commodities overall are historically cheap versus stocks.
See the whole article on Barron's
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