the dollar has been dropping ever since 1971 when we went off the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944... which basically allowed the trading of US dollars to gold at the fed.

funny... but we went off the gold standard instead basing the value of the dollar on US productivity...

then in the mid 70s... we started shipping Amercian production of goods offshore to cheap countries. there was a pull back from that in the 80s... then it went full bore from '92 on.

tough to base the value of your currency... on something your don't value yourself