"Summary
While gold has provided a slightly positive real return over the very long term, the price movement is far too volatile for gold to act as an effective hedge against inflation. For those investors who desire to hedge the risk of inflation the preferred instrument is TIPS, which directly hedge the risks of inflation. "

Of course, we are in it for the big money. We think of volatility in a positive manner especially with the Obama 2009 cruise missiles loaded with trillions of instant USD around the corner.

btw, In the long term everyone is dead.