There is a simple way to remove the endless complexity of these sorts of discussions.
The media (which is owned by you-know-who) continually muddies the waters of the economic situation with gobbledygook about the commodities market, the dollar index, interest rates, supply and demand, technology advances, productivity, war, political instability, consumer confidence, severe weather, hole in the ozone, etc.
It's all nonsense.
Rule #1: Inflation is purely a monetary phenomenon. Creation of dollars in excess of GNP (vs GDP, which is a fudged calculation) is inflation. Nothing else can cause inflation.
Rule # 2: There is only one rule.
Once you realize this, it's a simple matter to go back to the beginning to find the standard and do the math.
In 1913, the last year for real money in the US, the price of silver and gold and oil and housing will tell you everything you need to know about prices:
1913:
Ave house: $3,395.00
Gold: 20.67
Silver: 1.29
Oil: 2.63 (Pennsylvania light crude)
2008:
Ave house: $204,500.00 (recently dropped to 190,500.00 in the credit crunch)
Gold: 805.00
Silver: 14.00
Oil: 105.00
Gold today is 1913 X 40. Oil today is 1913 X 40. Housing today is 1913 X 60, but today's average house is 50% larger than the 1913 house, which, on a square foot basis, puts the price at, you guessed it: 1913 X 40.
This would mean that the 1913 dollar has been inflated to the point of being 1/40th of its original value, translated to mean that it's worth 2 1/2 cents.
This would also mean that silver is far undervalued. At 1913 X 40, silver should be $51.60 against the dollar.
Either way, the salient point here is that the dollar is now worth 2 1/2 cents. It literally has nowhere to go. IMHO, worrying about the price of gold or silver against a destroyed currency is a wasted endeavor.
BTW, median income has risen to 1913 X 52, but today's number is median 'household' income. Housewives didn't work in 1913, the true median income in 1913 is more of an educated guess and the income tax was 1%. When you make the adjustments it works out to 1913 X 40.
Conclusions: Dollar is shit. Stop gauging standards of value like gold and silver by their dollar value, or against a commodity, or by some chart or headline.
Just buy and hold. Just an opinion.
Bosso