Inflation is ultimately irrelevant
It is merely a secular change or erosion of numeration or denomination by which the worth of goods and services is measured.
BLOOMBERG: A Gold Crash Everyone Saw Coming Lures Bargain Hunters Worldwide

Inflation is a hidden tax on money, as well as a hidden store of value on business inventories in the form of unrealized gains, which are not real gains, but only increases in the dollar amounts by which the same goods are valued.
Inflation dictates a change of numeration or «numéraire» by which the economy is measured. Gold is always gold. For whatever its intrinsic worth is, gold does have industrial uses apart from jewelry, coinage or bullion to store in vaults, and it's not that easy to obtain.
Supply and demand would dictate the price of gold if it were a commodity and not a precious metal. People trade gold, and either transport it between vaults in armored trucks, or leave it in the same vault and book the trades on paper. Let's not fool ourselves with the availability of "physical delivery" to average mid-to-upper-class heavily gun-controlled but otherwise unsecured neighborhoods in America.
Instead of supply and demand of gold, since it is, after all, a precious metal and not a commodity item, we actually have to talk about the supply and demand of money in terms of gold.
The dollar has lost more than half its value against gold in the last two years, and some investors are calling a peak in the price of gold by technical analysis of daily price movements. If money is tightening or anticipated to be tightening, it is good to have cash (or short-term bonds) on hand and otherwise wait and see.
If continued inflation is anticipated, and rising interest rates are predicted in response, it is best to get out of long-term bonds, which are a heavy gamble against the growth and expenditures of government. Gold is a possible investment, but securing it (physically) or securitizing it (on paper) is very troublesome for a number of different reasons including possible confiscation by the government.
