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The classic stocks-vs-gold comparison, indexed for fair growth comparison. The S&P 500 series here is total return — it includes reinvested dividends, the way long-horizon equity returns are honestly measured. Gold has no dividend, so the comparison is structurally informative: which asset class compounds faster across the displayed window?
Comparing the S&P 500 price-only index to gold understates equity returns by ignoring dividends — which historically contribute roughly a third of long-run S&P performance. Total return is the apples-to-apples comparison.
FRED's `SP500TR` series does not exist; FRED's `SP500` is rolling 10-year only per S&P license. Robert Shiller's public ie_data.xls publishes monthly total return back to 1871 — free, well-documented, the canonical academic source.
Yes — most notably 2001 to 2011, where gold went from ~$270 to ~$1,800 while the S&P essentially round-tripped. Toggle the 10Y range and slide your eye along — multi-decade outperformance windows for gold do exist; they're narrower than equity bulls would have you believe and longer than gold bulls would.
median U.S. home prices (Case-Shiller)