Learn about gold and its relationship to the U.S. dollar.
Gold’s History and Symbolism
Throughout history, civilizations have coveted gold. Even today, gold remains the ultimate prize. Gold is not only a prize and a symbol of wealth, it is also a metaphor. It’s an honor to receive a gold medal, to be told you have a heart of gold, or to own a gold credit card. The exchange of gold bands symbolizes love and marriage in many societies. Gold is the ultimate symbol of the pinnacle of human achievement. Today it continues to be a psychological barometer of market sentiment. Gold is a rare metal. In the history of the world, mining has produced only 187,000 tonnes. The fact that governments worldwide hold gold as a foreign exchange reserve highlights the importance of the metal. Throughout history, many governments used gold to back their currencies, creating a gold standard.
Gold vs. the US Dollar
Today, while governments maintain hoards of this yellow metal, none use it to back their paper money. Gold is usually denominated in U.S. dollars. Therefore, there is a relationship between the price of gold and the dollar, in that there can be an effect on gold prices as the value of the dollar rises and falls. While the relationship between the value of the U.S. dollar and gold is important, the dollar is not the only factor that affects the price of the precious metal. Other factors that affect the value of both gold and the dollar are interest rates, inflation, monetary policy, and supply and demand. The prices of gold and the dollar may often appear to oppose each other due to investor sentiments and economic factors, but there is no set or official relationship between the two. Gold is an asset. As such, it has intrinsic value. However, that value can fluctuate over time, sometimes in a volatile fashion. As a rule, when the value of the dollar increases relative to other currencies worldwide, the price of gold tends to fall in U.S. dollar terms. It is because gold becomes more expensive in other currencies. As the price of any commodity moves higher, there tend to be fewer buyers; in other words, demand recedes. Conversely, as the value of the U.S. dollar moves lower, gold tends to appreciate as it becomes cheaper in other currencies. Demand tends to increase at lower prices. Gold does not yield interest in itself; therefore, it must compete with interest-bearing assets for demand. In other words, other assets will command more demand because of their interest rate component. There is also a psychological factor attached to the value of gold. The price of gold is often sensitive to the overall perceived value of fiat or paper currencies in general terms. Here’s one way of looking at this relationship: There are approximately 330 million people in the United States, while the total world population is around 7.7 billion. Less than 5% of the world lives in a nation where the U.S. dollar is the national currency.
Gold’s Role
The role of gold as a currency is ubiquitous around the world. Throughout history, gold has been money. The ancient philosopher Aristotle wrote that money must be durable, divisible, consistent, and convenient and that it must possess value in itself. Gold meets all of these characteristics. During times of fear or geopolitical turmoil, the price of the historic metal tends to rise as faith in governments falls. During times of calm, the price of gold tends to fall. As perhaps the world’s oldest and most storied currency, gold is an essential barometer in terms of global economic and political well-being.
