For roughly 150 years after the Mint Act of 1792 by which congress established and defined the Nation's currency, the purchasing power of the dollar fluctuated in a relatively narrow range. at the end of World War II, the price level was close to peeks (and the purchasing power of the dollar close to the troughs) reached after the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World War I. in contrast to those earlier episodes, full convertibility of the dollar into gold was not restored after 1945, and prices continued to increase. The loss of the dollar's purchasing power accelerated greatly after 1971, when the last link between the dollar and gold was severed. By 2003, the dollar had lost more than 90% of it's original purchasing power.
$USD Gold $GLD $SLV Silver US Dollar Index Forex
