[roenxi]

Peering 40 years into the past to inform investment decisions is fine as far as it goes, but I feel that the investment environment today is different from what it was in 1980.

Gold doesn't do much over a century, it's main property of interest is that it sits in an inert fashion wherever it is left. I'm not too surprised on worried if it has a near-0 return over 50 years.

I don't actually believe it has a positive return over the last 20 years either; but most people don't accept my "the inflation rate is meaningless, stop referring to it to value real returns" argument so I usually don't bother mentioning it.