[cpdiii]

Gold's historic high was set on January 21st, 1980 at $850 an ounce. I fully expect to see it reach, and surpass those levels.

If you factor in inflation when and if gold reaches 850 dollars it is still about half of what it was in 1980.

[sefarkas]

... it is still about half of what it was in 1980.

An old Apple computer of that era ran you a grand or two depending. By your logic, personal computers would cost $10-$15k instead of $300-$500. The price of gold recorded in the papers is the "marginal price of gold" which by its nature has to be volatile as the market seeks out the worth of gold to the most marginal user. A sudden rush of gold (or any commodity) into the market would rapidly depress the price you see in the papers until the market clears the available product. The market is working to maintain a relatively constant ratio between the price of gold and the price of a barrel of oil. The two move in tandem.

With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to some of the highest in the G-7, the dollar become more attractive. The value of currency is set by the relative ratio of the government guaranteed riskless return of a bond denominated in that currency.