In 2000, $1 million invested in gold $XAU $would have bought you about 3,500 ounces. Today, that same position is worth around $15.7 million.
Now compare that to the S&P 500:
The same $1 million, measured on price alone, would be worth roughly $4.7 million today.
So the asset often dismissed as a “lifeless rock with no earnings or innovation” has outperformed the premier engine of U.S. capitalism by more than 3x.
XAUUSDT
Perp
4,480
-0.06%
It is not that companies stopped being productive.
It is that the currency measuring their performance keeps eroding in value.
That is the part most people overlook.