Sorry Goldbugs, You’re Losing to Treasurys in 2011

By Matt Phillips

Just for the record, gold is limping into the end of 2011, while Uncle Sam’s I.O.U.’s are finishing strong. Year-to-date, the total return on long-term Treasurys — counting price increases and interest payments — was roughly 30% through Wednesday. After the clobbering gold took yesterday, gold is up only 11.6% on the year. It’s down another 1% Thursday. But, don’t worry barbarous relic lovers, you could have done much worse. The total return on the S&P 500 — that’s price and dividend payments — is a negative 1.7% through the end of yesterday. Here’s a look at the chart.
FactSet Research

Of course, we love to prod the goldbugs — if only to make them stop scanning the horizon for the black helicopters, put down their shotguns, and hand-crank their generators to fire up their laptops and post angry comments from their tin shacks somewhere out in the high desert.
But gold’s run higher over the last few years has been nothing to sneeze at. Over the last three years it’s up roughly 92%. Over the last two it’s up 41.2%, according to FactSet data. If you caught the lion’s share of that run, congrats. And be careful.

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