Macro Lens · data tool
Your birth year
Enter a year and an amount in DM or euros. The page shows what that amount corresponds to today by the official consumer price index, and what the same sum became in gold or in a savings account.
Calculator
Method notes
How the figures are calculated
- DM amounts are converted at the fixed rate of 1.95583 DM per euro, set on 31 December 1998. DM can be chosen for years up to 2001.
- The consumer price index for Germany is Destatis' long series from 1948, which includes the DM era. The equivalent today is the amount multiplied by the latest index value and divided by the average index of the chosen year.
- The euro-area comparison uses the ECB's Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices the same way, from its first complete year.
- Gold and savings are shown only where their series have data for the whole period; a missing value is never replaced by zero or an estimate.
What the tool does not say
- It says nothing about what to do with money today.
- It says nothing about what prices, gold or interest rates will do next.
- It does not ask about you, your savings or your plans, and it stores nothing.
- A different start year can change which path looks larger. That is a property of the data, not a verdict.
Disputed
Whether official price indices capture the rise in the cost of living is debated. The theses set out both positions with data. Theses and counter-theses
Sources
| Series | Source and licence | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer price index for Germany, long series from 1948 (DM era) | Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis) (Destatis copyright terms for destatis.de: reproduction and distribution, also for commercial purposes, permitted provided the source is mentioned; altered or recalculated data must be marked as such (https://www.destatis.de/EN/Service/Legal-Notice/CopyrightGeneral.html).) | No data yet |
| HICP, monthly index and annual rate (all items), euro area and Germany | Eurostat (Eurostat copyright notice: "Reuse of statistical data, metadata, publications, and other dissemination tools published on this website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is authorised provided the source is acknowledged." Modifications must be stated (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/help/copyright-notice).) | |
| TradingView daily market data (crypto prices and market capitalisation, gold TVC:GOLD) | TradingView (TradingView Terms of Use (https://www.tradingview.com/policies/). Not redistributable here: the data is shown on this site only. LEGAL_REVIEW(tradingview-terms): whether the terms cover display of data read through the unofficial chart websocket is to be reviewed before production use; the exact terms are TODO(to be provided by the client).) | No data yet |
| Long series of interest rates on savings deposits in Germany | Deutsche Bundesbank (TODO(to be provided by the client)) | No data yet |
Every series has an entry in the source register with its licence, cadence and owner.
