Gold In 1980: A Vignette

If gold is going to go into an all-out bubble with a climactic ending, then it would pay to look back at the climax of the last bubble in 1980. A thumbnail timeline has been provided by "True North" at Seeking Alpha.

The context of gold's sudden rise to $850 and its sharp drop back down was a world where America was on the defensive geopolitically, in addition to being ridden by double-digit inflation. Paul Volcker had begun choking off inflation, but the gold market didn't believe it at first. The final spurt upwards for the metal was impelled in part by an announcement of 13% inflation in the U.S. as of December 1979. The Hunt Brothers' silver accumulation scheme had fallen apart at about the same time the peak in gold was hit. These and other items are in the list.