Between the high and low of 2008, gold fell 34% in value over a period when Bear Stearns and other huge banks collapsed and the government was engaging in bailouts
Okay, I'm not going to boil over this point
But here's the gold price chart which you wanted for everyone to see and draw their own conclusions:
And here is the time period in question—during the 2008 financial crisis:
You also posted a line chart, at what looks like a monthly time frame. That means all price extremes (highs and lows) are omitted and only monthly closing prices are shown. Here is a more useful chart for our purposes:
High: $1,032.35
Low: $681.75
= 33.96% decline in value
Personally, I'm strongly inclined to think that this minor and short-lived correction with higher lows was mainly due to these banks selling out the contents of their gold vaults in an attempt to provide liquidity they so desperately needed back in the day. Well, maybe, it was not just banks alone as some governments might have been involved in this sell-off too, but that had nothing to do with gold falling in value on its own
The 2008 crisis was relatively short-lived for stocks too (only a few months longer than gold's correction). It also ended with higher lows, followed by new all-time highs. That's totally irrelevant to the point at hand: the 2008 crisis saw both markets fall significantly in value. Rationalize it however you want, but that's what happened.
(and the fall was nowhere near 34%, just in case)
See above.
Gold had been rising prior to 2008 and continued to rise after 2008 till 2012
Why do you keep repeating that? The question is: "What was the effect of the 2008 financial crisis on the gold market?"
And you're responding with: "Gold was in a long term bull market." That doesn't answer the question, nor does it address what actually happened to gold prices during the last financial crisis (a 34% crash in value).
