but it's really meaningless. The situation today is completely different from the situation in 1980.

They key players today are central banks, as well as nouveau riche in China, India and other countries. European central banks, which were in the gold price manipulation business in the 1980s, have agreed to limit gold sales-- one reason for the rise in the gold price since 2002, when the euro and associated agreements, including limits on gold sales, went into effect.

There was a program on TV here in Japan the other night about Asian buying of gold. Japanese film crews went to various gold shops in China, Vietnam, India, South Korea and elsewhere on the Asian continent to ask gold buyers about their reasons for buying gold. Almost all of them answered that they distrust the stock markets, the dollar, and their respective local currencies. According to the program, Asian buyers have been the driving force behind the rising gold price.

Interestingly enough, relatively speaking there is not so much interest in gold in Japan. For example, the Bank of Japan has not added to its gold reserves for 10 years (although it would certainly have done well if it had been buying gold 10 years ago, at 1000 yen per gram (it's now 4500 yen per gram). And most of the big gold buyers at Japanese coin shows seem to be non-Japanese.