Dow 1,000,000
That doesn’t take into account the effect of inflation, however. With inflation averaging 3.1%, the Dow’s real compounded annual growth rate was 2.3%, according to the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. Inflation over that span meant that at the end of 2016, it took $2,116 to buy what $100 did in 1916, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. (As a frame of reference, 1916 was two years after the Federal Reserve began operations.)
