At the time, the value of the dollar was fixed by law at a 20.67th of an ounce of gold. Today, the value of the dollar isn’t fixed at all — and the actual value of the dollar has collapsed to less than a 1,300th of an ounce of gold. That’s higher than the nadir a year ago, but it’s radically lower than the dollar has been under any previous president.

This is what we all feel when, say, we go to buy a tank of gas. Since Bernanke became Fed chairman, the price of an average gallon has soared 54 percent to $3.52, even while the value of the gallon of gas has plunged nearly 33 percent to 1/372nd of an ounce of gold.

In other words, it’s not the gas price that is going up, but the dollar that’s going down.

It’s not just gas. Over the same period, the monthly grocery bill for a family of four jumped 25 percent to $1,036, while the value of those groceries fell 45 percent to 0.79 ounces of gold.