If Gold kept pace with inflation (roughly $35 an ounce in 1970 dollars) it would be ~$279.98 an ounce in 2025 dollars.
So inflation has almost nothing to do with the current price of gold and the grandparent post’s speculation about the futures market running hot is far more likely. The price of gold isn’t attached to the dollar and hasn’t been for over 50 years.
The retail price index probably understates the effect of inflation. The amount of gold to buy a house say has remained fairly constant over time.
I would like to see that chart because houses have also spiked significantly in price especially since 2008. That maintaining a consistent ratio would at least eliminate the dollar from the equation showing value not just dollars.
A quick sanity check of my own house would show that it would cost something like 75 ounces of gold. It was built in the 70’s and originally sold for 45,000, or well over 250 ounces of gold in gold prices from around then. Doesn’t seem right…
There's a chart here for the UK https://auronum.co.uk/gold-vs-bricks-how-many-ounces-you-nee...
It fluctuates a fair bit but starts and ends at ~150oz/house
And the US https://www.longtermtrends.net/real-estate-gold-ratio/
The other way to think about it is that the price of many other things may have gotten cheaper (in terms of labor/capital) at the same time as fiat inflation.
But how can you untangle an objective production price from the fiat / economy it's produced out of?
If that were the case, you'd expect scarce but still produced assets (e.g. housing) to have both increased in price (due to fiat inflation) and decreased in price (due to production technology efficiencies).
Which one dominates to what degree likely depends on the asset.
Inflation has been masked and understated for decades. Some of the inflation was concealed by getting rid of domestic production in favor of cheap imports. These chickens are coming home to roost.