The inflation-adjusted gold price has been rising steadily over the past several years, but is still a long way below its 1980 peak (in today's dollars, the 1980 peak is around $2500/ounce). Interestingly, but from our perspective not surprisingly, the IA prices of oil and copper collapsed in response to the 2008 financial crisis and have since only partially recovered, whereas the IA gold price experienced a fairly normal correction in 2008 and then resumed its bull market.

The main reason that gold has continued to make real progress since mid 2008 is that the bulk of the world's gold supply is held for store-of-value purposes, with only a tiny fraction being consumed in industrial processes. A consequence is that the demand for gold rises as other perceived stores of value are discredited. When the credibility of central banks and the currencies they manage began to shrink at an accelerated pace during 2008, a sizeable increase in the total demand for gold was a natural consequence.

If our economic outlook is in the right ballpark then gold will continue to make new multi-decade highs in real (inflation-adjusted) terms over the years ahead, whereas secular peaks were probably put in place for the inflation-adjusted prices of oil and copper in 2008.