Why have prices of the goods we buy risen over the past century? Why has the purchasing power of the dollar fallen? The better we understand why this has happened, the better we can understand changes in the price of gold. The long run course of wages, rents, and consumer prices is reasonably understandable. The long-run change in gold’s price is reasonably understandable. The causes of "short-term" variations in gold’s price — some running for many years — are not as understandable. Gold is traded in a speculative market. For this reason, its price movements can never be fully understood. … Continue reading Debt and the Price of Gold