For the week, gold moved up 1% to $2,026, silver moved up 2% to $22.98, platinum slid 4% lower to $922, and palladium gained 9% to $1,003. From a year ago today, gold has gained 5%, silver is down 3%, platinum is down 13%, and palladium is off 43%.

Today, we would like to discuss how long it takes the stock market to recover after a severe downturn from market highs, in inflation-adjusted terms, compared to the performance of gold over the same time period. For the last 3 major downturns, the effects of inflation added between 6 months to 7 years 9 months for the S&P 500 index to recover purchasing power.

This is relevant because we are at/near market highs today. From the highs of December 1972, it took until July 1987 for the S&P 500 to break even on an inflation-adjusted basis. Over the same period, gold gained 612.6%. From the highs of August 2000, it took until February 2015 to break even, versus a gain for gold of 338.3%. From the highs of October 2007, it took until October 2013 to break even, versus an inflation-adjusted gain of 67.7% for gold.