What actually happened
to the dollar?
One relentless scroll of charts made the debasement of the dollar famous. It also cited almost nothing. This is the sourced version: fewer charts, every one built from a primary source you can check, every one stamped from the site's own data at build time.
The dollar has lost about 97% of its purchasing powerpurchasing powerWhat a dollar can actually buy, not what the dollar number says. A 1971 dollar bought a gallon of gas. Today's dollar buys roughly a third of one. Same dollar, much less buying ability.Full definition since 1913, and 87% since the gold window closed in 1971. This is not bad luck. The supply of dollars grew from $0.3 trillion in 1959 to over $22 trillion, and prices followed. Every chart below links to the primary source.
- $1 in 1913 buys about 3 cents of goods today: the dollar has lost 96.9% of its purchasing power (BLS CPIConsumer Price Index (CPI)The government's measure of how much a typical basket of consumer goods costs over time.Full definition).
- It takes roughly $792 today to match $100 of spending in 1971 — an 87% loss since the dollar's last tie to gold ended.
- M2 money supply went from $298 billion in 1959 to $22.4 trillion in 2025, about 75x. In 2020 alone it grew 24.6%.
- The national debt grew from about $0.4 trillion in 1971 to over $38 trillion, and the median US home from roughly $25,000 to over $415,000, while wages rose far less.
- Official inflationinflationA general increase in prices over time, meaning each dollar buys less than it did before.Full definition peaked at 13.5% in 1980 and 8% in 2022, but the money supply routinely grows faster than the CPI admits.
- Every chart here is sourced to BLS, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, or CoinMetrics. The famous 1971 chart-wall cites none of them.
wtfhappenedin1971.com shows you dozens of charts and sources almost none of them, which makes it easy to wave away. This page shows fewer charts and sources every single one. Click any verify badge to go straight to the government or exchange data behind the line. Numbers over vibes.
How much purchasing power has the dollar lost?
Almost all of it. A 1913 dollar — the year the Federal Reserve was created — holds about 3 cents of its original purchasing power today. The slope steepens sharply after 1971, when the last link between the dollar and gold was cut.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The dollar has lost ~96.9% of its purchasing power since 1913, computed as CPI(1913)/CPI(latest).Verify at: BLS CPI ↗ · BLS CPI data ↗Annual CPI-U index, stamped from data/cpi.json at every build.. Indexed to $1.00 in 1913.
How much have prices actually risen?
The same story from the other side. The overall price level is about 32 times higher than it was in 1913. The line is nearly flat for the first half-century, then bends upward and keeps climbing as the money supply expands.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U (1982-84 = 100) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The CPI price level is ~32x higher in 2025 than in 1913.Verify at: BLS CPI ↗Same annual CPI-U series as the purchasing-power chart, shown as the index level..
How high has inflation actually gone?
Year-over-year inflation is not a gentle 2%. In the era since the dollar left gold in 1971, it hit 13.5% in 1980 and 8% in 2022 — each surge following a burst of money creation, not weather. (The annual CPI snapshot is decadal before 1971, so a true year-over-year line starts at the modern floating-rate era.)
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, annual CPI-U change verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Annual CPI inflation peaked at 13.5% (1980) and 8.0% (2022).Verify at: BLS CPI ↗ · FRED CPIAUCSL ↗Year-over-year change in the annual CPI-U index..
How fast is the money supply growing?
This is the chart underneath every other one. M2, the broad money supply, went from $0.3 trillion in 1959 to $22.4 trillion in 2025. The near-vertical move after 2020 is the fastest peacetime expansion on record: M2 grew 24.6% in a single year.
Source: Federal Reserve, M2 (FRED series M2SL) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: M2 rose from ~$298B (1959) to ~$22.4T (2025), and grew 24.6% in 2020.Verify at: FRED M2SL ↗December level each year, stamped from data/macro.json (nightly FRED snapshot).. December level, in trillions.
Does the money supply grow faster than official inflation?
Usually, yes. Set the growth of the money supply next to the official CPI and the gap is the tell. In 2020 the money supply grew about 25% while headline CPI read roughly 1%. New money does not always show up in the consumer basket first; it shows up in assets.
Source: Federal Reserve M2 (Dec-over-Dec) and BLS CPI (annual average) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: In 2020, M2 grew ~24.6% while annual CPI rose ~1.2%.Verify at: FRED M2SL ↗ · BLS CPI ↗Same arrays that drive the money-supply tracker.. Explore it in the money-supply tracker.
How big is the national debt now?
The federal government's total debt went from about $0.4 trillion in 1971 to over $38 trillion, roughly 90 times larger. Debt itself is not debasement, but it is the pressure behind it: the least painful way to carry a debt that size is to inflate away the currency it is owed in.
Source: U.S. Treasury, Total Public Debt via FRED (GFDEBTN) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Federal debt rose from ~$0.42T (1971) to ~$38.5T (2025), about 90x.Verify at: FRED GFDEBTN ↗Fourth-quarter level each year, stamped from data/macro.json (public FRED CSV).. Year-end level, in trillions.
What did a house cost back then?
The median US home sold for about $25,000 in 1971 and over $415,000 today, roughly 16 times more. Wages did not rise 16-fold. This is the debasement people feel most directly: the assets that actually hold value get priced further out of reach each year.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, Median Sales Price via FRED (MSPUS) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The median US home sale price rose from ~$25,000 (1971) to ~$415,000 (2025).Verify at: FRED MSPUS ↗Annual average of quarterly median sale prices, stamped from data/macro.json..
What does the dollar look like priced in Bitcoin?
Against a supply that cannot be expanded, the dollar's decline is starkest. Bitcoin's average price rose from about $5 in 2011 to five figures today (shown on a log scale so the early years are visible). It is volatile, not a straight line, but the direction against a debasing dollar is clear.
Source: CoinMetrics daily BTCBitcoin (BTC)The ticker symbol for Bitcoin, used on exchanges and in price quotes.Full definition/USD, annual average verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Annual-average BTC price rose from ~$5.64 (2011) to five figures, on a fixed 21M supply.Verify at: CoinMetrics ↗Arithmetic mean of daily closes per year, stamped from data/btc.json. Past prices are history, not a forecast.. Price it yourself in the Everything Priced in Bitcoin tool.
None of these charts predict the future. They record what already happened: a currency whose supply can be expanded without limit, and the prices, wages, and asset values that adjusted around it. That is the case for owning something that cannot be printed.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) · bls.gov/cpi. Purchasing power, price level, and inflation-rate charts.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). M2 money supply, series M2SL · fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). CPI, series CPIAUCSL · fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL.
- U.S. Treasury. Debt to the Penny · fiscaldata.treasury.gov. National debt figure ($39T+).
- CoinMetrics. Daily BTC/USD, annual average · coinmetrics.io.
Last updated 2026-07-12. Not financial advice. Every chart is stamped from the site's data snapshot at build time.