American dollars value today

I've "cut and pasted" the Currency Destruction Chart from www.fame.org. That's the Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education.

Destruction of the World Currencies 1950-1990

The first column is "Country"
The second column is "Percentage decline in purchasing power"
The third column is "percent increase in Cost of Living"
The 4th column is "percent change in free value relative to the US Dollar"



Argentina 99% 20,202,702,702,702% -99%
Brazil 99% 424,445,666,666% -99%
Peru 99% 16,817,499,900% -99%
Bolivia 99% 13,499,399,990% -99%
Uruguay 99% 285,668,690% -99%
Chile 99% 63,599,900% -99%
Yugoslavia 99% 16,111,328% -99%
Israel 99% 12,124,900% -99%
Turkey 99% 329,862% -99%
Iceland 99% 251,900% -99%
Ghana 99% 196,500% -99%
Mexico 99% 175,575% -99%
South Korea 99% 130,000% -99%
Paraguay 99% 49,000% -98%
Columbia 99% 30,410% -99%
Sudan 99% 24,245% -99%
Ecuador 99% 12,794% -98%
Greece 98% 4,535% -89%
Portugal 98% 4,173% -79%
Costa Rica 98% 4,032% -93%
Jamaica 97% 3,553% -90%
Dominican Rep 97% 3,032% -94%
Spain 97% 2,874% -48%
Syria 97% 2,799% -92%
Philippines 96% 2,549% -88%
Venezuela 96% 2,301% -94%
El Salvador 96% 2,148% -75%
New Zealand 95% 1,904% -77%
South Africa 95% 1,898% -85%
Italy 95% 1,729% -41%
Ireland 94% 1,629% -33%
Egypt 94% 1,536% -87%
United Kingdom 93% 1,304% 37%
Australia 92% 1,227% -63%
France 91% 1,076% -24%
Pakistan 91% 1,075% -79%
Sweden 91% 1,075% 7%
Guatemala 91% 1,036% -86%
Norway 91% 1,028% 63%
India 91% 1,017% -71%
Denmark 91% 1,002% 67%
Sri Lanka 90% 945% -89%
Myanmar 90% 912% -90%
Morocco 89% 820% -57%
Nepal 88% 733% -77%
Tunisia 87% 660% -57%
Japan 87% 648% 212%
Honduras 86% 604% -71%
Haiti 85% 583% -75%
Cyprus 85% 556% -19%
Canada 84% 528% -11%
Austria 84% 515% 196%
Thailand 84% 514% -18%
United States 82% 442% 92%
Netherlands 81% 432% 142%
Belgium 81% 419% 66%
Malta 74% 278% 33%
Switzerland 72% 263% 233%
Germany, West 70% 230% 267%
Malaysia 67% 206% 32%
Panama 64% 175% 0%

Source: "Notes: 1992...1993" by HF Langenberg, CFA, Smith, Moore & Co. St. Louis MO

Source: International Currency Analysis, Inc. 7229 Avenue N, Brooklyn, NY 11234 (Publisher of Currency Year Book)

As can be seen from the above chart, that world's experience with fiat money for the period 1950 to 1990 has been a disaster for ordinary people. Countries such as Argentina, which, as of this writing on 5/31/02, is in the midst of yet another currency collapse, do not have a clue that the source of their problem is that their money is no good.

With results such as these, it would appear that any faith in fiat money is entirely misplaced. It should be noted, too, that this kind of chart is unlikely to appear on the pages of any major media outlet, nor on the pages of any current economics text book.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Larry Parks, Executive Director
FAME,501(c)(3)
Box 625, FDR Station
New York, New York 10150-0625

Phone:212-818-1206
Fax: 212-754-6543
[email protected]
www.fame.org

Jim here again. A lot of people delight in ridiculing the gold standard. But at the end of the day (or the century) an ounce of gold is still an ounce of gold. Too bad the same thing can't be said about paper.

Re: American dollars value today


Here's a website I've used in the past which will do exactly as you asked. However, I tried the site this morning and it says that I am forbidden:

"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /hmit/ppowerusd/dollar_answer.php on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.27 Server at eh.net Port 80"

I don't know what that really means, but maybe the site will work for you.

General Tsao

From 1950 to 1990 the US Dollar lost 82% of its purchasing power (from the above chart). This reduces the $1299 to $233.82. If you assume 3% inflation per year from 1990 to the present, that further reduces the purchasing power to $157.37.

The $157.37 is probably good to plus or minus 5%. If you need an exact value, as the General has suggested, no doubt there are websites that would give you the percentages.

Try this:

http://www.aier.org/colcalc.html



$10,239.18 ( I peeked!)

On the other hand, how much would you have had to pay in 1949 for a hand held calculator that would handle simple functions like extracting the square root of a number? These comparisons are tricky.

Good point, Roger, perspecitve is crucial. In 1949, a gallon of gasoline would have cost between ten and twenty cents anywhere in the country. You could have had a "luxury" Buick for under $2,000. But you'd have played hell getting a Buick with air conditioning (it it was available then, and i confess to not knowing)--it would have been bulky, unreliable, subject to frequent and expensive repair. Forget a "sound system," there was simply nothing available other than a radio, which any model of automobile would have offered. Although gasoline would have been cheap, your mileage would have appalled a modern car-owner, and the lack of anything more sophisticated than the mostly two-lane U.S. highways would have meant it would take far longer to get from point A to point B then than now, if any considerable distance were involved. There were no fast-food chains along the way, and Howard Johnson's would have been the only national chain lodgings available. Were you involved in a serious highway accident, the likelihood of living until you could be gotten to a competent surgeon would have been slim, and blood transfusion would have been a toss up, and extremely expensive if available. You likely would not have had any health insurance, and no state would have required you to have had automobile insurance. There were no systems of emergency medical services, there were no helicopters to take you to a better hospital, and the level of sophistication in surgery was a world away from the present day.

The only constant in history is human nature--stubborn, opinionated, often hostile and sometimes violent human nature. Such historical comparisons are always apples to oranges.

On the other hand, a five dollar bill and an old Ford would have entertained you like royalty on a Saturday night.

Roger- I went back to college in the early 70s. I took a class where I needed a calculator that handled square roots. I got a dandy Texas Instruments number (state of the art), for $90- Today, I pribably could get a calcualtor that would do the same thing for 5 bucks!

The museum of technology in or near Huntington, WV has a collection of computers.

In this collection is a desktop calculator. When I say 'desktop' I mean desktop! It is larger than an old IBM Selectric typewriter.

This calculator was most advanced--it not only did the four functions, +,-, x, /...it calculated square root!

It even bragged so on its documentation: Calculator with Square Root

I got a big laugh outta that!

General Tsao

Here is a photo of the calculator:

Electronic Calculator