The dollar still buys coffee. But in gold terms, it buys less than ever. That is not a metaphor. That is a measurement. Gold just crossed $3,370 per ounce. That is up more than 30% year-to-date. In April, it hit $3,500. J.P. Morgan now expects it to average $3,675 by the end of 2025 and push toward $4,000 by mid-2026. That is not a bull run. That is a repricing of reality.
Measured against that metal, the U.S. economy looks hollow. The dollar has lost 98% of its value against gold since 1971. But the collapse is not just historical. It is accelerating. In 2000, one ounce of gold cost $273. Today, it costs more than twelve times that. That is not inflation. That is erosion.
In gold terms we’re broke
This is why millennials and gen z are so infuriated https://t.co/Ik9Jn0mayK
— Roberto Rios (Peruvian Bull) (@peruvian_bull) June 23, 2025
Young Americans are feeling it first. Gen Z entered the workforce with record debt, record rent, and record asset prices. Their median net worth at the end of 2024 was $86,945. That is up 22% from the year before. But it still buys less. Gold is up more than 30% in the same window. That means their gains are fake. Their savings are melting.
Debt is the other anchor. The average Gen Z consumer now carries $94,100 in personal debt. That is higher than millennials and Gen X. It is not just student loans. It is credit cards, car notes, and buy-now-pay-later balances. They are financing burritos. They are leasing time. And they are doing it in a currency that is losing ground to metal.
The gold market is not just a hedge. It is a scoreboard. It tracks fear. It tracks policy failure. It tracks the slow bleed of purchasing power. Central banks know it. They are buying gold at the fastest pace in 50 years. China added 225 tonnes in the first half of 2025. India added 75. Russia is back in the market. The U.S. is not. If gold hits $4,000 by next summer, the dollar will have lost another 15% of its value in metal terms.
Sources:
https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/global-research/commodities/gold-prices
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/broke-young-americans-20s-may-194500727.html
https://longforecast.com/gold-price-today-forecast-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021-ounce-gram