metal content: gold (or at least silver)
Over the last few days the talking heads have been in rapture over the DJIA breaking the "magic 13,000 barrier."
When inflation is considered, and it should be because the underlying DJIA unit is the stock price in dollars, a rather different picture emerges.
Basically, inflation has "spiked" the Dow in exactly the same way melamine was used to boost the nitrogen (and apparent protein) content (and price) for rice and wheat gluten. The difference is that the spiked wheat and rice gluten killed many peoples' pets (and possibly people if it found its way into human food supply), while inflation will poison your investments.
I have the entire series from the start on 12 Jan 1906 [Dow =
100] to present. If anyone wants a copy email for the data in xls format w/charts.
(nominal) CY$ 0407 CPIU$ Milestone Closing Date CPI-U Closing
10500 10,581.42 21-Apr-99 166.20 13,083.52
10600 & 10700 10,727.18 22-Apr-99 166.20 13,263.75
10800 10,831.71 27-Apr-99 166.20 13,393.00
10900 & 11000 11,014.70 3-May-99 166.20 13,619.26
11100 11,107.19 13-May-99 166.20 13,733.62
11200 11,200.98 12-Jul-99 166.70 13,808.05
11300 11,326.04 25-Aug-99 167.10 13,928.79
11400 11,405.76 23-Dec-99 168.30 13,926.82
11500 11,522.56 7-Jan-00 168.80 14,027.76