Updated October 2026: I still can't read the chart in the post, so I can't confirm it's the same one. The figures it seems to use match a chart circulating on X this month. A Cointelegraph post credits "River's chart" for the claim that the US dollar has lost 87% of its purchasing power since 1971, against 93% for the pound and 66% for the Swiss franc. A post from The Macro Paper on October 13 gives the same country list, with gold at "1,200%+".
Two numbers I can check:
- US dollar: One 1971 dollar is worth $8.32 in 2026 on a CPI basis (in2013dollars, updated within the last month). 1 ÷ 8.32 = 0.120, so the loss is about 88%, one point more than the 87% quoted. The gap usually comes down to the base month and the index used.
- Gold: "1,200%+" can't be right for a move from $35 to about $4,300. That is 4,300 ÷ 35 = 122.9 times the starting price, a gain of about 12,186%. The source for the $4,300 figure is about three months old, and I haven't checked gold's price today. The chart's "1,200%" is most likely a dropped zero.
The three checks from before still apply: the units (dollars, gold or an index), the start date (1971 is a fixed start, but the end date and inflation measure matter), and whether the series is nominal or inflation-adjusted. Each country's line would need its own CPI series to verify.
🕒 Updated October 2026
