Most observers are analyzing the reasons for the stock market decline last Friday, but on Friday Eliminating almost all early 2026 gains. It has so far outperformed gold through 2026 – but don’t forget the 65% gain in gold last year, and the big gains since 2000 or 2020. As the table (below) shows, most long-term comparisons since the day 55 years ago when President Nixon ended the U.S. dollar’s last devaluation:

Gold vs. S&P 500 from 1970, 2000, 2020 and 2026

Like our 250^Th With a national anniversary approaching, perhaps we can celebrate gold’s role in our national prosperity. To summarize the story, here are the events that took place in the summers of 1776, 1791, 1861, 1896 and 1971:

• 250 years ago on June 22, 1776Congress issued $2 million worth of new paper money, called Continentals. The new currency featured the likeness of Revolutionary soldiers and the inscription, “The United Colonies.” Without the backing of gold, the Continental quickly became almost worthless, as we experienced 30+% inflation in 1779, our biggest year of inflation ever. In a 1779 letter to John Jay, the future first chief justice of the United States, General George Washington issued a plea for good money, stating: “A wagonload of money will hardly buy a wagonload of currency.”

• 235 years ago (June 1791), while the United States was planning to mint gold-backed dollar coins, France’s new revolutionary government began the first inflationary printing of its “assignment,” the equivalent of America’s Continental – unbacked and inflationary. The assignment fell into disrepair within five years, leading to Napoleon’s rise to power. The French had to learn about inflation first hand.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the profound words our founders used to justify gold coinage.

Our founders created a strong gold-backed dollar from the beginning

At the birth of our nation, our great Founding Fathers spoke of the glitter of gold and silver, for they had already struggled with the inflation caused by the paper “Continental,” which then flooded the nation.

The man most responsible for writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, Fearing the dangers of paper currency, he wrote, “Paper is poverty… it is only the ghost of money, not money itself.”

Later, as president in 1802, Jefferson wrote to his Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin,

“Specie is the best medium because it will preserve its surface; because, having intrinsic and universal value, It can never die by our handsAnd it is the surest means of dependence in time of war.”

In retirement, during the War of 1812 and with inflation looming, Jefferson became even more vocal in his call to support gold. Writing to John W. Epps in 1813, Jefferson said:

If the credit of the banking companies is a mercy to any one, it is only to themselves, who receive a solid interest of eight or ten per cent., to the public, these companies have taken away all our gold and silver medium, which before their institution, we had without interest, which we could never have lost from our hands, and now our salvation has been given to us in two hours’ war in exchange for two hundred millions. On which we will pay them heavy interest, until it vanishes into thin air, capital can be created by industry and accumulated by economy, but the magicians will propose to create it only legally. Tricks with paper” – Thomas Jefferson in 1813.

After the war ended, Jefferson did not give up the fight, as he wrote to John Taylor in 1816:

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first through inflation, then through deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow around. [them] will deprive the people of all possessions until their children are homeless on the continent which their fathers conquered.” – Jefferson in 1816.

Thomas PaineFamous for writing “Common Sense” as early as 1776, he also spoke eloquently about gold in a pamphlet entitled “A Treatise on Government, Bank Affairs, and Paper Money” (1786):

“Gold and silver are the output of nature: paper is the output of art. The value of gold and silver is estimated by the amount that nature has made in the earth. We cannot increase or decrease that amount, so that amount does not depend on man. Man has no part in making gold or silver. His labor can take from it and collect everything from it. Mine, improve it for use and give it an impression, or seal it… – Thomas Paine, written in 1786.

All these forces came together in our Constitution, which was largely drafted. James MadisonWritten by:

“Congress shall have power . . . to coin money, to regulate the value thereof and foreign coin, and to fix standards of weights and measures.” (Article 1, Section 8), and “No State…shall coin money; issue bills of debt; tender nothing but gold and silver coins in payment of debts.” (Article I, Section 10).

This is why America had no inflation for the first 150 years of our nation’s existence.. Only once during that time did we feel compelled to inflate our currency without the backing of gold – in the 1860s.

An early (but necessary) departure from gold – Lincoln Greenbacks

• 165 years ago on July 17, 1861Just before the first major battle of the Civil War at Manassas (Bull Run), President Abraham Lincoln proposed our first non-gold paper currency. Greenbacks (“demand notes”) were authorized by an act of Congress on July 17 and were soon called greenbacks for the dark green ink on the back of the bill, but they were not issued until 1862.

After the war, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, former Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase cast the deciding vote, declaring the creation of Lincoln greenbacks unconstitutional, overturning his own actions.

Chase later gained fame as the face of inflation, with his image on $10,000 bills printed in 1928-46.

Let’s close with two more anniversaries marking the checkered marriage of gold and the US dollar:

• 130 years ago, on June 16-18, 1896Republican goldbugs nominated William McKinley for president on a platform that supported the gold standard. Three weeks later, at July 7, 1896At the Democratic Party convention in Chicago, a young writer from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan, speaking before 20,000 delegates, spoke eloquently against the Republican gold standard, concluding, “You shall not press the brow of labor upon this crown of thorns, you shall not impale the man of gold.” The delegates went crazy as Brian won the nomination.

• 55 years ago on August 15, 1971President Nixon closed the gold window for domestic or foreign claims. Since then, .

Gold is not dead. It’s taking a well-deserved nap. While the US continues to add $2 trillion in red ink annually.