What Happened in 1971?

[ABNARTY]

Good stuff. Thanks for posting. 


Like the author, I find that level of economics confusing. I would like to see a graph (if it is even possible) of world economic metrics through history with the ebb and flow of central bank influence/authority.

Here is a chart showing the buying power of a dollar from 1799 to now:



It is relatively flat until about 1914, then it begins to rise a bit, but around 1971, it takes off like a gasoline fire.

I got that image from this article




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Good stuff! I am guess the increase around 1914 might have something to do with the creation of the Fed and income tax in 1913. I can see some turbulance with WWII in there but you're right. Around 1971 it gets crazy. And sad for the American tax payer.

[Ninurta]

Good stuff! I am guess the increase around 1914 might have something to do with the creation of the Fed and income tax in 1913. I can see some turbulance with WWII in there but you're right. Around 1971 it gets crazy. And sad for the American tax payer.

Looked at from a different direction, what 300 dollars would buy in 1971 requires 2050 dollars to carry away in 2019, and that was before the BidenHarris inflation craze. Put another way, one 2019 dollar would buy 6.83 worth of stuff back then, so 1 buck in 2019 was worth just under 15c 1971 cents.

That's 2019 numbers. I've seen some estimates recently of consumer prices having increased 30% on average over the past 8 months. Some things have increase a LOT more, other things not as much, and that is the average across all products. That's a hell of a jump over so short a period of time. using the figures from above, and assuming there were NO price increases in 2020, that puts a 1971 dollar as being worth $8.88 2021 dollars, or a 2021 dollar being worth just over 11c 1971 cents.

11 cents.

And it's still dropping, at an accelerating rate.

.

[ABNARTY]

Good stuff! I am guess the increase around 1914 might have something to do with the creation of the Fed and income tax in 1913. I can see some turbulance with WWII in there but you're right. Around 1971 it gets crazy. And sad for the American tax payer.

Looked at from a different direction, what 300 dollars would buy in 1971 requires 2050 dollars to carry away in 2019, and that was before the BidenHarris inflation craze. Put another way, one 2019 dollar would buy 6.83 worth of stuff back then, so 1 buck in 2019 was worth just under 15c 1971 cents.

That's 2019 numbers. I've seen some estimates recently of consumer prices having increased 30% on average over the past 8 months. Some things have increase a LOT more, other things not as much, and that is the average across all products. That's a hell of a jump over so short a period of time. using the figures from above, and assuming there were NO price increases in 2020, that puts a 1971 dollar as being worth $8.88 2021 dollars, or a 2021 dollar being worth just over 11c 1971 cents.

11 cents.

And it's still dropping, at an accelerating rate.

.

Frightening, isn't it? And if we look at this loss of buying power against the slower rise of average income, the consumer loses even more.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

The Nixon shock was a series of economic measures undertaken by United States President Richard Nixon in 1971, in response to increasing inflation, the most significant of which were wage and price freezes, surcharges on imports, and the unilateral cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock