The Slide to Zero
I saw a chart today that is making the rounds online, causing a fair bit of panic. It plots the purchasing power of the US Dollar from 1913 to today. The line looks like a ski slope, crashing from $1.00 down to roughly 3 cents.
It is a terrifying visual if you think of money as a store of value. It looks like the stock chart of a company going bankrupt. But the “stir” it is creating online misses a fundamental point: this isn’t an accident. It is the design.
Feature, Not a Bug
The chart starts in 1913, the exact year the Federal Reserve was created. That isn’t a coincidence. The modern monetary system is built on the premise that a little bit of inflation is necessary to grease the wheels of commerce. They want your money to lose value, so you spend it or invest it rather than stuffing it under a mattress.
The “risk” mentioned in the article isn’t that the dollar will disappear; it’s that the rules of the game have changed without anyone explaining them. If you save in cash, you are guaranteed to lose. The “safe” option is actually the riskiest one over the long term.
The Melting Ice Cube
The viral chart regarding the falling value of dollar is a stark reminder that we are all holding melting ice cubes. The only way to keep your wealth is to trade the ice for something solid - assets, land, businesses - before it turns into a puddle. The dollar isn’t crashing; it is just doing exactly what it was programmed to do: slowly evaporate.