Abstract:
This dissertation examines the 98.3% debasement of American currency from 1792 until
the present time. The thesis is that the trend towards debasement occurred subtly due to
ten discrete events, none of which were primarily intended to induce currency
debasement, and many of which occurred more than one hundred years before the actual
debasement occurred. This dissertation presents a monetary economic history of these
years and presents arguments to how these ten events resulted in the massive debasement
that we see today.
