96.9% of the US dollar's purchasing power vanished since 1914, but not gradually. Eco3min Research's dataset shows four concentrated inflationary episodes — WWI (1916-1920), WWII/post-war boom (1941-1951), the Great Inflation (1968-1982), and the post-COVID surge (2021-2023) — account for 72% of the total cumulative price increase, despite covering only 29% of the 113-year period. This episodic pattern, detailed in the monthly CPI-U data, shatters the myth of slow, steady erosion, highlighting how brief but intense shocks drove most of the damage.

The analysis quantifies the destruction, showing the Great Inflation alone caused 30.2% of all losses, more than WWI and WWII combined.