Why your money buys less every year

From Bretton Woods to Bitcoin, a new Cointelegraph video unpacks why currencies lose value — and what it means for your savings.

Not long ago, a $100 bill could cover dinner, a movie and drinks. Today, it might not even be enough for the meal alone — and in another decade, it’s likely to stretch even less. That’s not a fluke of bad luck but a feature of modern monetary systems: inflation is built in.

In a new Cointelegraph video, we examine why money consistently loses value over time, and why governments actually want it that way.

The story begins in 1944 with the Bretton Woods agreement, when the US dollar was tied to gold at $35 an ounce. That link ended in 1971 with the “Nixon Shock,” turning the dollar — and every major currency in the world — into pure fiat, backed only by government trust.

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