GOOD QUESTION: A number of things....

1. France demanded gold in exchange for our dollars.
2. Went off gold standard to stop #1.
3. Food prices rise... big fluctuations; sugar was posture child for price increase.
4. High fructose corn syrup introduced; 1/100 cost of sugar. Start of health decline in US and world.
5. Nixon intorduced wage and price controls; mostly food.
6. Water gate!!!!! Nixon running for re-election.
7. Nixon economist warned US educated Saudi economist would see they could raise oil price: it was about 25 cents a gallon for gas but could go to 1 dollar without people cutting back. Question was who raised price first. US by tax on oil/gas (we keep the money), or let Saudi raise it and they keep the money.
8. Because of water gate/re-election, Nixon couldn't push for tax on oil/gas.
9. Saudi raised price of oil: SINGLE LARGEST TRANSFER OF WEALTH IN HISTORY OF WORLD. HAPPENED AT LEAST 4 MORE TIMES, because politicians will not do the hard thing and raise price of oil.

Excellent charts. Thanks.

Until we stop going down this road and keep printing money (which is a loan from the Fed) or until we loose reserve currency status, our dollar is going down, down. From time we went off gold std., the dollar is worth less then 1 cent: 100% reduction. Reserve currencies usually last only 70 years. Our time is up.

So, now that we stirred the pot with Russia, they are setting up a new reserve currency based on Gold. The rest of the world is joining in.