Everything you said is correct except the rate of loss in the value of money over time. Interest and inflation are compounding effects.

So if you have a widget priced at 100 dollars today and the rate of inflation is 10% and the widget follows it exactly, the widget will double in price in 7.2 years. The simple rule of thumb is called "the rule of 72" to help you remember. This means that half the value of your savings will be lost to inflation in 7.2 years.

At 20% it's 3.6 years (more precisely 3.8), which means losing half your money in just over three and a half years. at 6% it takes 12 years to lose half. So it is a question of who you believe--government statistics or shadowstats. Shadowstats calculates based on the criteria of the government rules used around 1980.

Asset prices like houses and stocks have been inflating even harder than consumer prices for many years now. If you're in the market to buy a house and you watch the price double over the space of 5 or 6 years, that's not the house getting more valuable (it's still the same house), but you getting more poor.

It's important to understand what's going on here. People, corporations and the government have incurred debts that cannot be repaid. The government is forcing interests rates to artificially low levels to cause this inflation and prevent the markets and economy from collapsing under the weight of the debt. They will probably continue this policy until the debts are wiped out or the currency becomes worthless. Probably, both will happen at the same time.

Note the example of Germany at the end of WWI. Germany continued printing money after the war to deal with war debts and did not stop until the Mark was completely worthless. It was during the period of heavy inflation (25% or so, I think) from the start of the war to 1920 or so in which almost all of the value of the money was destroyed--NOT the hyperinflationary period of '22 to '23. That last year was just the final, pitiful last few percent of value getting destroyed.

So watch out! Also note that foreigners held German Marks just like foreigners hold U.S. Dollars today, for a wide variety of reasons and needs. When they wake up and realize the U.S. gov is burning out the currency, they'll dump their dollars. That's when the sh*t really hits the fan.