By Nick Giambruno
International Man
October 28, 2026
Imagine working 9 to 5 for 50 years, then watching the Federal Reserve create 40% of the money supply and erase the purchasing power of 20 years of your labor.
You don't have to imagine it. The COVID mass psychosis gave us a preview as governments across the world unleashed a frenzy of currency debasement.
I have no doubt that the next episode will cause greater damage-and devastate most people.
The US government continues to debase the dollar at a staggering pace.
Independent analysts estimate that the US dollar has lost 10% of its purchasing power per year in recent years.
At that rate, anyone who holds US dollars loses half of their purchasing power every seven years.
The dollar has had no gold backing since 1971. This pure fiat system gives the US government the power to debase the currency to finance itself.
The government has exercised that power at an accelerating rate. The money supply has exploded in recent decades. In recent years, its growth has turned parabolic.
The US money supply has expanded over 32-fold since 1971.
The US government's own rigged CPI statistic says the dollar has lost 88% of its value since 1971.
Gold tells a harsher story: the dollar has lost over 99% of its value since 1971.
But the problem began before 1971.
Before 1971, the Bretton Woods system offered a partial gold standard. Foreign central banks could exchange dollars for gold at $35 per ounce. Average citizens could not.
The root of the problem reaches back to 1913.
That year marked a disaster for America and human freedom.
Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating the country's third central bank. The 16th Amendment also gave the federal government the power to levy an income tax.
These developments may seem unrelated. But what are the odds that the United States would adopt a central bank and an income tax in the same year?
Chance cannot explain the timing.
A closer look reveals how the Federal Reserve system depends on the income tax to function in its present form.
The structure works like this:
1. Central banks create fake money out of thin air.
2. They use this money to purchase government bonds and finance government borrowing.
3. Government debt forms the largest asset on the Fed's balance sheet. What supports that debt ? The government's power to tax its citizens.
4. Governments use violence and threats of violence to extract taxes from average citizens to pay the interest and service the debt owed to the central bank, which created the money it loaned to the government out of thin air.
The federal income tax arrived months before Congress created the Federal Reserve in 1913. The connection matters.
What is the main asset central banks own?
Government bonds.
What supports the value of government bonds?
The government's power to extract taxes from its citizens.
The income tax gives the US government access to a vast funding source-a permanent, uncapped claim on the productivity of every citizen. Without it, the government would command a smaller funding base, its debt would attract less demand, and the central banking scam could not operate in its present form.
In short, you and your productivity serve as collateral for your government's debts. Your labor supports the government bonds that sit on the central bank's balance sheet-bonds the Fed purchases with money it creates from nothing.
That is the unvarnished truth about central banking.
In 1913, federal law fixed gold at $20.67 per ounce, and average citizens could exchange paper dollars for gold at that rate.
Even better, many citizens held physical gold coins instead of paper claims.
Gold served as money that ordinary Americans could own, save, and spend. The $20 Double Eagle contained 0.9675 ounces of gold, the $10 Eagle contained 0.48375 ounces, the $5 Half Eagle contained 0.24188 ounces, and the $2.50 Quarter Eagle contained 0.12094 ounces. Citizens used the smaller coins in commerce, while the larger denominations served as savings or payment for major purchases.
The creation of the Fed set the monetary system on a different course.
From 1913 to the present, the estimated US broad money supply has expanded close to 1,500-fold.
The government's rigged CPI statistics say the dollar has lost over 97% of its value since 1913.
Measured in gold, the US dollar has lost 99.5% of its value.
The dollar's decline since 1913 echoes the fate of Rome's denarius. Between AD 180 and 280, Rome stripped all but a trace of the silver from its currency as the empire descended into terminal decline.
That is the problem in a nutshell.
The fiat currency system has entered terminal decline. Currency debasement has accelerated, yet governments force everyone to use their failing money.
This 113-year-old trend predates every person alive. Its age hides it from view. Most people accept it as part of the natural environment, like a fish in water.
I suspect that illusion will soon shatter. The 113-year currency-debasement trend will shift into overdrive.
This article was originally published at International Man.