the author compares gold with berkshire performance, and come up with the conclusion that gold is a better hedge on inflation compares to berkshire. let's look at long term chart of gold.
Is gold really a better hedge against inflation? Look at the inflation-adjusted price of gold in the above chart. In 1980, high inflation with strong oil price pushed gold to record high, with boom came bust. Recently Gold price skyrocket up caused by many QEs by governments around the world printing money.
After all, gold doesn't generate any income (dividend), it is a commodity like other metals, it's price depends on supply and demand. Copper price rises as emerging market's use of copper goes up. Simply Demand and Supply. It performs much better than many stocks, does that mean is it a better hedge against inflation??? I disagree. Does it mean it is a good investment if bought at price time and price, of course.
Gold is a great investment tool if bought at the price time and price. Now let's look at Berkshire's performance.
Looking at historical performances, I will say berkshire beats gold hands down.It has compounded annual gain of 19.8%! It is above inflation for sure.
Gold relative to S&P500 chart