Gold’s explosive jump to new record highs has given economist Peter Schiff fresh ammunition — and his message is blunt: U.S. stocks are already in a historic bear market, once you stop measuring them in dollars.
Gold briefly surged to around $5,590 an ounce before settling near $5,414, finishing the day up $235. That was the largest single-day dollar gain in gold’s history.
Schiff says this move exposes what inflation-adjusted numbers are hiding.
On social media, he pointed out that the Dow Jones is now worth only about 9 ounces of gold. Back in 1999, the Dow was worth nearly 18 ounces. In his view, that means stocks have lost close to 80% of their value in real terms, even though indexes keep hitting new highs in dollars.
His warning to investors was simple: don’t be fooled by inflation. When measured against something real, like gold, stocks have been sliding for years.
The numbers back up his argument. In 1999, the Dow stood near 5,117 while gold traded around $286, giving that 17.9-ounce ratio. Today, with the Dow near 49,000 and gold above $5,500, the ratio has dropped to about 8.8 ounces. Same market, very different reality.
The bigger picture adds fuel to the fire.
The Federal Reserve has paused interest rates after a series of cuts, even while admitting inflation is still running hot. At the same time, central banks around the world are buying roughly 60 tons of gold every month. That steady buying has pushed gold past the euro as the second-largest global reserve asset, behind only the U.S. dollar.
Schiff and others see this as a quiet shift away from paper currencies and toward hard assets, driven by rising debt, geopolitical tension, and growing doubts about long-term currency stability.
Crypto is feeling the pressure too — just in a different way.
Instead of exploding higher like gold, crypto is being reshaped by regulation and market structure. In the U.S., lawmakers are still fighting over who controls crypto oversight. In Europe and the UK, new rules are forcing stablecoin issuers to act more like banks, with strict reserve and governance standards.
Meanwhile, betting markets and on-chain data suggest traders are bracing for choppy, sideways action, not a massive breakout. Volatility is rising, leverage is still high, and recent sell-offs have triggered sharp liquidations across major platforms.
Put it all together, and Schiff’s warning hits harder.
Gold is screaming stress. Stocks are celebrating dollar-based highs. Crypto is being pulled into the rulebook. And beneath it all, investors are slowly relearning an old lesson: whether you’re in a bull or a bear market depends less on index numbers — and more on what your money can actually buy when measured against something that can’t be printed.
