This Ted Talk animated video explains where the value of money comes from and who controls its value.
They go over the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, which gave the Federal Reserve ultimate control over the value of money - now called "fiat money." That means it isn't linked to any external source like a commodity or gold, but instead relies on government policy to decide how much to print (to determine its value).
The narrator informs us The Federal Reserve is not under the control of any branch of government, something many people may not know.
The animation then clearly explains how inflation and deflation work and how the FED (somehow) figures out how to artificially control inflation and tries to "get the numbers just right," in order to stimulate growth and keep people employed . . . without letting inflation reaching "disruptive levels."
The Federal Reserve, therefore, determines how much your money is worth and also millions of Americans' chances of keeping their jobs, the video says.
A truly genius idea, indeed: a small group with the knowledge and insight to know exactly how to respond to a free market. They must have a really smart computer to figure all of that out.