One Aging Geek

Saturday, November 22, 2003

kuro5hin.org || The Golden Ruler

kuro5hin.org || The Golden Ruler

In the last 35 years, the world has experienced an unprecedented period of global inflation. From 1792 to 1915, the cost of a bag of groceries in America went unchanged, but from 1973 to 1982, the dollar lost over half of its buying power at the store counter. Since then, the dollar has shed another half of its remaining value when buying that same bag of groceries. Not to be outdone, the UK walked a similar path. From 1795 to 1910, prices didn't budge, but since 1973, the pound has lost almost nine tenths of its retail muscle. What is going on?