DollarValue
A dollar then, and what that dollar is now. Under it, an hour of pay, a share of federal taxes, and a share of the federal debt, each read the same way.
The screen
Item is the thing. In terms of is what you compare it with. The two lists match, with two differences. Item starts with a dollar amount you choose. In terms of starts with four ways of measuring prices: CPI, PCE, chained CPI, and the GDP deflator.
- Left What it was.
- Middle What it is, and how far per year.
- Gold What it would be if it had only followed the comparison.
On the top row the gold number is the dollar itself. Pick an item and a middle number appears there too, the real price now. Gold stays on the right.
Under the dollar, three rows. What an hour of work paid. Each person's share of federal taxes. Each person's share of the federal debt. The debt is last.
The rows
The wage is hourly pay for workers who are not managers, at private companies, from 1964. Before that it is factory workers' hourly pay, including benefits, joined so the two meet in 1964. The gold number carries that old wage forward by whatever you picked under In terms of. The middle number says how far the real wage ran ahead of or behind that, per year. It stays white.
Taxes are what the federal government collected in a budget year, divided by the population that July. The debt is what the government owes the public, counted the same way. It leaves out what the government owes its own accounts. The gold number restates that old share in the prices of the year it was measured. A later year on the wheel does not change it. A month counts only while you are still in that year. If you picked something other than CPI, the label says CPI.
On the debt and the taxes, the middle number turns red when it runs more than 2% a year ahead of CPI, and green when it runs more than 2% a year behind.
The marks
Year means the average of that year's numbers. A year still going says YTD, the year so far. A finished year missing some months says partial. October 2025 CPI was never published, so 2025 says partial.
A missing year or month is a dash, and the line says when the numbers start or end. A month with no number is gray. A year with no months locks the month wheel on Year.
The per-year figure is for a stretch of a year or more. A shorter stretch shows the whole change. Ounces and coins appear only next to a dollar price.
The chart
Each line starts at 1 on its first number, if that number falls within about three months of the start. A line that begins later is left off, so it cannot flatten the rest. A doubling takes the same height anywhere, from 1 to 2 or from 8 to 16.
M1 is cash and the money in checking accounts. In May 2020 savings accounts were added to it. A comparison that crosses that month is left blank, on the wheels and on the chart.
The numbers
CPI is what city households pay. It leaves in the months that are always more expensive. PCE is the price of what people actually buy, and it is the one the Federal Reserve watches. Chained CPI allows for people switching to cheaper goods, and the number is revised after it comes out. The GDP deflator is the price of everything the country produces, not just what households buy. PCE, the GDP deflator, and GDP per capita take out the months that are always higher or lower.
GDP is what the country produces in a year. GDP, M1, M2, and the monetary base are in billions of dollars. M2 is a wider count of money, including savings. The monetary base is the cash in people's hands plus the cash banks keep at the Federal Reserve. GDP per capita is that year's production divided by the number of people. It, household income, and household spending are in the dollars people were paid that year, not adjusted for rising prices. Household income is the middle household in the Census count from 1967, half of households above it and half below. It will not match the Census chart, which has already been adjusted for rising prices. Household spending is what a household laid out in a year, from 1984 through 2024.
The median home price is the price of the middle house, half of sales above it and half below. It comes out four times a year, as do the GDP deflator, GDP per capita, and Home price FHFA, the federal housing agency's index of home prices. January, April, July, and October are those four readings. GDP and household spending come out once a year.
Gold is the official US price through 1973, then a monthly average. That average was the London afternoon price, and it is now an average of daily market prices. Silver is the London afternoon price. Bitcoin is the Bitstamp exchange from 2011 through November 2014, then the Coinbase exchange.
For the NASDAQ, the Dow, and Bitcoin, a month is the last price that month and a year is the average of every price. From September 2016 a month of the S&P is the average of that month's daily closing prices. Until then the S&P is a long monthly record kept by economist Robert Shiller. After that it is the S&P 500. The Dow is a daily closing price from February 1885, then the St. Louis Fed's Dow for the years it covers. Neither one counts the cash those companies pay to their shareholders.
Wheat is the kind grown for bread in the US. Corn is the world price of corn. Both come from the World Bank from 1960, and from the International Monetary Fund after that. Gasoline is the average price from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices back to 1800 come from the Minneapolis Fed, joined to the official prices in 1913.
United States only. The numbers come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the St. Louis Fed, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Census Bureau, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Minneapolis Fed, Robert Shiller, MeasuringWorth, Lawrence Officer, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Bitstamp exchange.