Data repository
Start with the live layer. The aim is a readable first pass on monetary expansion, household pressure, and purchasing-power loss before the slower archival notes below.
This page is meant to be reviewed first. If the evidence feels coherent enough to keep testing, continue to the paper.
Current conditions
Public FRED series only. No heavy charting, no dashboard theatrics — just enough live signal to orient a careful reader quickly.
Live series
$22.7T
Weekly money stock · +47.9% vs. Jan 2020
The post-2022 pullback did not unwind the pandemic-era expansion. The stock of money remains materially larger than it was before 2020.
Live series
$6.7T
Federal Reserve assets · +61.6% vs. Jan 2020
The balance sheet is down from the emergency peak, but the system is still carrying a far larger central-bank footprint than it did before 2020.
Live series
3.3%
Official CPI, year over year · +27.5% vs. Jan 2020
The latest annual inflation print looks calmer than 2022, but the accumulated rise since 2020 is still large enough to keep grinding wages and savings.
Live series
3.0%
Shelter CPI, year over year · +31.1% vs. Jan 2020
Housing pressure has not broken. Shelter continues to keep the household cost floor elevated even when other categories cool.
Live series
12.6%
Energy CPI, year over year · +42.6% vs. Jan 2020
Energy remains the most visibly volatile pressure point. It transmits quickly into transport, utilities, and sentiment.
Live series
−21.5%
CPI-adjusted buying power lost since Jan 2020
By the CPI measure, one dollar held since January 2020 now buys only about 78 cents of the same basket. Slow erosion is still erosion.
Comparison layer
The point is not to collapse the measures into one story. It is to show how an official national series and a more lived cost frame can describe different parts of the same pressure field.
BLS / FRED
Chapwood Index
How to use this page
Start with the live series, then move into the reference sections below if you want the slower historical framing and source trail.
What these data points do
They do not prove the whole thesis by themselves. They establish the pressure, extraction, and distortion the paper is interpreting.
Limits to keep in view
FRED reflects official releases, not a bespoke cost-of-living model. The live layer is a credible front door, not the last word on household pain.
Deeper reference points
These longer anchor claims give the thesis historical depth. The presentation is quieter on purpose: less dashboard, more report.
35% of all US dollars in circulation today were created in a two-year window. From 2019 to 2020, M2 increased by 19%, followed by 16% the following year. Everyone holding US dollars was diluted by 35% of the whole.
Implication. In 35 of every 100 dollars of savings, the life energy stored there was siphoned and redistributed without the holder's consent.
+35%
The United States dollar has lost about 97% of its purchasing power since the founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913. That means 97% of the human time and energy deposited in 1913 was taken from those who made the initial deposit.
Implication. A dollar deposited in 1913 today buys roughly what three cents would have then. The theft was slow, cumulative, and nearly invisible at any given moment.
−97%
From 1948 to 1973, productivity increased 96.7% and hourly compensation increased 91.3% — nearly in lockstep. From 1973 to 2013, productivity increased 74.4% while hourly compensation increased only 9.2%. The divergence began precisely in 1971 when the US abandoned the gold standard.
Implication. Workers produce more and receive less. The difference doesn't disappear — it gets redistributed upward via the inflationary mechanism.
1971
Cumulative inflation since the founding of the Federal Reserve. The YoY rate compounds exponentially. A 2% annual inflation target, maintained for 50 years, is not a small thing — it is the mechanism by which value is quietly extracted from the population over time.
Implication. What appears moderate year-over-year is catastrophic across a human lifespan.
2,923%
A note on sources. The live section uses public FRED endpoints, so freshness is limited by the release cadence of the underlying weekly and monthly series. The deeper notes still rely on broader historical and interpretive sources. Even by the official metrics, the scale of purchasing-power destruction is hard to dismiss.