In my book equating for inflation is simply representing price in gold. I.e. did you know that the oil price for the past 50 years is the same if you use gold t

In my book equating for inflation is simply representing price in gold. I.e. did you know that the oil price for the past 50 years is the same if you use gold to measure it? Flat line. The same goes for the cost of living, etc. Salaries are down though. Here is your inflation. Gold isn't an investment. Gold is just a currency that can't be created out of thin air. It represents energy and labor needed to get it out of the ground. Currently the mining cost is about $1,200 with gold price about $1,300. That's why looks worse than S&P the price is as low as the production cost at the moment. If you are interested in the real inflation rate, I'd advise to use formula that was last used by the US Government in 1980s in Reagan years. By that formula the current inflation is at 10%. In 1990s the Government added a lot of absurdities to the formula confusing technological progress with inflation hence the official inflation is non-existent while the average healthcare premium is up from 5 to 20% every year not to even mention about the cost of necessities like gas, food, energy, all the result of doubling monetary base by the FED in 2008-2012 to rescue zombie banks.