Great Graphic: Long-Term Chart Gold and the S&P 500 Adjusted for Inflation

This Great Graphic was sent to me by Ralph Dillon of Global Financial Data.  Adjusted for inflation, it charts the S&P 500 (blue line) and gold (red line) since 1820.  Of course, the S&P 500 did not exist then.  Although S&P had some indices that included almost 240 companies in the 1920s, the modern index was not launched until 1957.  Some readers may discount the period before 1957. Even so, the chart is provocative and offers a stark rebuttal against claims of gold's superior protection against inflation.  This seems especially true for the period of financial engineering associated with the Reagan-Thatcher era.