While I emphasized this won't happen overnight, it will be as dramatic as the dollar's precipitous decline following Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard. The only difference is: we won't have the luxury of decades this time around.

Given this backdrop, I thought it fitting that this week's Chart of the Week also focuses on the dollar's devaluation. Except today's chart provides a sobering perspective that goes well beyond the early 1970s. It tracks the purchasing power of $100 all the way back to 1913—a year I chose quite deliberately. That's when the Federal Reserve Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Wilson, setting the stage for what would become a century-long erosion of the dollar's value.