When money
changed.
In 1971, the United States ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. It was a technical monetary decision — but its effects compounded over decades.
The relationship between money creation, asset prices, and everyday affordability began to shift gradually. More slowly at first. Then less slowly.
By 2020, the effects had become difficult to ignore.
Most people could feel it — even if they couldn't explain it.
The effects were gradual. But over time, the relationship between money, assets, and affordability began to change.
The gap between markets and everyday life is what this page documents.Money buys less.
The same items. Decades apart. The products stayed roughly the same — the money changed. These numbers aren't alarming statistics. They're things people buy every day.
The burger didn't change. The dollar did.
Median income grew +94% in the same period.
Three times more expensive. The same basic need.
Most people feel inflation before they understand it.
Housing outran
wages.
Home prices and household income both rose since 1990. But not at the same pace. Homes appreciated nearly three times faster than wages — quietly making ownership harder to reach for each new generation.
Markets rose. Affordability fell. Both things happened at the same time.
Markets measure prices.
People live in affordability.
The gap between these two lines is where the feeling of unaffordability lives.
When money expands,
prices adjust.
When central banks create more money, that money flows somewhere. Into stocks. Into real estate. Into assets. Prices rise — not always because things became more valuable, but because the money buying them became more abundant.
Understanding this is the difference between a market that doubled and a life that improved.
More money entered the system. Prices adjusted with it.
A new kind of
financial culture
emerged.
Younger generations experienced financial crises, inflation, and digital markets simultaneously. They grew up watching institutions fail, assets inflate, and access narrow.
From this environment, a new form of internet-native financial culture evolved — shaped by liquidity, collective attention, speculation, and a certain cultural irreverence toward traditional finance.
SPX6900 reflects this phenomenon. SPX Terminal documents it through data.
2008 showed that financial systems could fail dramatically. It created lasting scepticism toward institutions — and lasting interest in alternatives.
Mobile apps, zero-commission trading, and blockchain technology opened financial participation to billions of people who previously had limited access.
SPX6900 reflects a new form of internet-native financial culture shaped by liquidity, internet culture, and collective attention. Its long-term significance is something markets will determine.