. . is that the U.S. government made any denomination beyond $100 scarce and hard to get specifically to make drug transactions less convenient. Drug traffickers consequently turned to the Euro where 500 and 1000 denominations and even higher are easily available. This happened years ago.

So this isn't a "value of the dollar" thing, it's a drug thing. Where do you think that hip-hop "ostentatious wealth" comes from?