Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are

rising fast.

>> Every single metric out there is saying

that the economy is stronger than ever.

GDP is growing, low unemployment, and

stocks are at all-time highs.

>> The roaring economy is roaring like

never before.

>> So then, why does it feel like none of

that is true? Because the stock market

hasn't been measuring your life for

almost a hundred years. In fact, what we

have now are two completely different

economies running inside the same

country. Okay, but why should you care?

Well, because now the same companies,

the same jobs, and the same industries

are splitting in half depending on which

side you're on. And so clearly that

impacts all of you. So you can't just

sit this one out because the people who

built this system made sure you can't

tear it down without holding you

hostage. So, I spent weeks uncovering

their playbook, and I'll break down this

entire thing in a way that's actually

easy to understand. And by the end of

this video, you'll understand why making

more money won't save you. But I'll tell

you exactly what will.

So, everyone's arguing about whether the

economy is good or bad with these record

high stock prices, but that's the wrong

question. Because the stock market was

never designed to measure whether your

life is getting better. it measures

something else entirely. So, let's start

by breaking it down in a simple way.

First and foremost, the economy measures

everything. And I mean everything from

trade to production. And it's usually

measured by things like GDP,

unemployment, inflation, and consumer

spending. Whereas the stock market

doesn't really directly measure any of

that. A better way to look at it,

especially now, it's where investors

trade bets on how much money companies

will make in the future. And so, it's a

bit of an oversimplification, but that's

it. And another thing to know is that

the S&P 500, which is what everyone

points to when they say that the market

is up, only tracks about 500 companies

out of the 30 million business in

America. So really, it's again talking

about a very thin slice of the actual

economy. If you don't believe me, this

also isn't the first time that the stock

market is telling a completely different

story while reality is telling another.

And every time it's happened before,

it's ended up the same way. I'm sure a

lot of you have heard about the roaring

20s and as the name suggests it was this

golden era on paper. Between 1922 and

1929, the Dow had gone up six times in 8

years and the economy was growing almost

5% a year while unemployment was only

under 4%. So it was roaring all right,

but underneath all of that were some

cracks on paper. Farmers were actually

drowning in debt. Factories were

producing way more product than they

could sell. And most of the market's

growth wasn't coming from real

businesses. It was coming from people

borrowing money to place bigger and

bigger bets on stocks going up. Sound

familiar? Well, in 1929, the stocks did

stop going up. The Great Depression hit,

wiping out 80 to 85% of the stock market

value. And soon enough, production

collapsed by nearly half and

unemployment hit 1 in4 Americans,

leading to the worst economic collapse

that you all know about. But here's the

thing that you may not know. Just a few

years after the crash, the stock market

started rallying back nearly over 300%

between 1933 and 1937. So again, on

paper, it was like America was so back.

But the thing is that was again just the

stock market. while many ordinary

Americans still stood in bread lines and

recovery wasn't really a reality for

most. So that was almost 100 years ago

when it's one of the earliest and

clearest examples of the stock market

and the economy telling completely

different stories. And today the S&P is

at all-time highs while consumer

confidence is near pandemic lows. So the

question becomes why does this keep

happening? Well, there's a few reasons,

but one in particular stands out, and it

starts with what I consider the biggest

bet in human history. If you watch any

of my countless videos on AI, you know

that big tech right now is in the middle

of the largest spending spree in

corporate history, from data centers to

infrastructure. And comparing it to

previous bubbles, it's now more than

tripled than what the entire telecom

industry spent at the peak of the dot

boom. But with that said, that sounds

great, right? Especially when the

economy is factoring in consumer

spending and investment. So it must mean

that growth is happening. But if you

hear the words from Goldman Sachs chief

economist, he said it and broke it down

the best. When asked about how much AI

spending actually boosted the economy in

2025, his answer was basically zero.

>> Our estimate AI investment didn't affect

US GDP growth

>> because most of the hardware is

imported. So it doesn't even count

towards American production. the money

flows out, the stock prices go up, and

the GDP number barely moves. So

remember, the economy isn't growing

because of AI. The stock market is

growing because of AI. Like I

established, those are two very

different things. But again, that isn't

even the biggest reason because the real

engine has been burning since 2008. A

feedback loop that we gotten so addicted

to as a country that truly explains why

the stock market and economy no longer

matches up. Before 2008, the Fed wasn't

really pumping too much money into the

financial system. Roughly around $800

billion, but that number hasn't really

changed over the decades. But then when

the crash happened, the Fed started to

panic and as a Fed does by controlling

monetary policy slashinter interest

rates to near zero and for the first

time ever started increasingly pumping

and printing more money where by 2014

that $800 billion has grown to $4.5

trillion. And this addiction is called

quantitative easing. But all you need to

know is that the Fed was creating money,

pumping it into financial markets like

stocks, bonds, and real estate, causing

stock prices to shoot up. But again,

those were just assets, not wages or the

value of the dollar. And just like a Zen

or a nicotine gum addiction, you say is

only just once in a while, started

showing signs of real habit.

Because a few years later in 2017 when

they stopped trying to do this

quantitative easing, well, the market

started crashing. So, they reversed

course and brought it back. And once

that recent pandemic hit, that $4

trillion now doubled to $9 trillion in 2

years. And it's exactly why stocks have

ballooned during this time. And not to

mention with all that money printed

meant inflation hitting the highest in

40 years. But who who cares about that?

But what's clear is that this loop now

became an addiction. And every time the

economy started showing signs of slowing

down, the dose got bigger and bigger.

The Fed prints more money. Money flows

into stocks. The people who own stocks

feel richer. Let me let me take this

out. They spend more. That spending

shows up in GDP. And politicians call it

a strong economy. And just as we're

seeing now, it's now something they

can't even stop. It's a full-blown

addiction because every time they try to

pull back, the market drops. And so just

like a withdrawal, they put it right

back.

I was actually going to light this for

this video, but probably shouldn't

inside of this apartment, but anyways,

the stock market has become a wealth

engine that runs on a completely

different track. But what's clear is

that a system like this doesn't just

sustain itself by accident. And when you

follow the money to find out who exactly

benefits from keeping it this way,

you'll start to see why nothing ever

changes. And part of understanding how

money actually works starts with

understanding your own. But most people

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Money today. So, back to it because I've

now proven to you how the stock market

and economy are different. And a big

reason why is that addictive feedback

loop that we've gotten addicted to. But

what I found are three players that are

now feeding into each other to keep this

loop running forever.

So let's start at the top, the CEOs. So

for most of the 20th century, stock

buybacks were illegal and for good

reason. Because if a company uses its

own money to buy its own stock, the

price obviously goes up and anyone with

a brain will think that's textbook

manipulation. But in 1982, they quietly

changed that rule. And since then,

buybacks have become one of the most

powerful tools in corporate America and

something that allows the soul and blood

of America, the stock market, to keep

going up. So, let me just show you

exactly what I mean. Between 2019 and

2024, Lowe's, like the hardware store,

spent $46.6 billion buying back its own

stock. And yeah, big number, but that

works out to roughly $28,000 per

employee, while the average Lowe's

worker made around $30,600.

So if you view it like that, the company

was literally spending almost as much as

inflating its own stock price than

paying its entire workforce. But I'm not

just picking on Lowe's. The 100 lowest

paying companies in the S&P 500 spent a

combined $644 billion on buybacks over

that same exact period. And you might be

asking like, why? Why would a CEO choose

to inflate the stock price instead of

investing in the company? Well, it's

because over 80% of the CEOs now get

paid from stock awards and stock

options. So, when the stock price goes

up, the CEO gets paid a lot more. And

it's pretty much that simple. So, if

we're going to be real here, is it fair

to just blame the CEOs when that's

really just the incentive structure at

play? And incentives are always going to

reveal outcomes. So, before you go in

the comments and start calling me a

bootlicker, what I'm trying to get at is

that the CEO can't just do this alone.

In fact, they have bosses, too. And not

to mention, someone has to be buying

those inflated stocks and not just

buying them, but holding them and even

encouraging it. Which brings me to the

second player. And these companies here

sit at the center of all of this. Black

Rockck, Vanguard, and State Street are

all asset management companies, and they

manage over $24 trillion. And not just

that, they're the largest single

shareholder in 88% of S&P 500 companies.

And with that amount of power means that

these three firms vote on behalf of

millions of investors at corporate

shareholder meetings, which means that

they have a lot of say on things from,

let's say, CEO compensation packages or

buyback programs. And guess how these

asset management firms make their money?

They charge fees on the percentage of

total assets, which means exactly what

you might be tracking. So anytime the

stock market goes up, their revenue goes

up automatically. So these same three

firms that make more money when stock

prices rise are also the same people who

vote on whether CEOs can keep inflating

stocks with buybacks. Of course, they're

never going to vote no considering every

buyback inflates the assets that they

collect fees on. And voting against

buybacks will be voting against their

own revenue. So those are the two

players. But there's one more player

that keeps this whole thing protected

because none of this works without

someone writing the rules to allow it.

When Nancy Pelosi took office in 1987,

her portfolio was worth somewhere

between like $600,000 and $800,000. But

today, it's worth $133.7

million. That's a 16,930%

gain. And it's not even close to how

much they beat out the S&P, the NASDAQ,

and the Dow over the same exact period.

But I think you all know this by now.

Over hundred members of Congress make

10,000 stock trades every year. And and

it's not like this right or left thing

because both Democrats and Republicans

consistently overperform even

professional money managers. And just to

protect myself allegedly and in my

opinion, these members are routinely

trading stocks with insider information

on companies that their committees

directly oversee. So I think a lot of

you already know this, but here's what

most people miss. Again, just protect

myself. It's not just about allegedly,

in my opinion, insider trading in

Congress. It goes even higher because

think about it. How do we measure

whether a president is doing a good job?

It's usually the stock market that has

become like the scorecard now for

success and every president knows this.

I've analyzed a lot of Trump's and

previous president's speeches, and Trump

himself has pointed to the stock market

more than almost everything else is

proof that his policies work. And of

course, I'm recording this just as the

war has broken out. But usually the

approval ratings and the market's

performance tend to move together. When

the market is up, approval ratings are

high. And when it dips, he's kind of

where I'm going with this is that Wall

Street knows this, too. They know that

no president, regardless of party, can

ever afford to let the market crash. So,

what this means that every CEO doing

buybacks and every asset manager

collecting fees know that they have

pretty much unlimited protection. they

can keep inflating prices because the

government can't afford to stop them and

tell them no. So, you can now start

seeing how this is all circular and

connected. The president needs the

market up to prove that the economy

works. The market needs the president to

keep the rule favorable. And as long as

both sides need each other, nothing

changes. And to put a little tiny bow on

top of that, it's exactly why 26 out of

42 Wall Street lobbyists last year were

former government employees. So, it's

not even two separate groups of people

anymore. They're all the same damn

thing. Just like the addiction that we

talked about earlier, the longer this

loop runs, the harder it becomes to

break. Because breaking it wouldn't just

hurt the people at the top, it would

crash the same retirement accounts and

pensions that regular people depend on.

So, it's not crazy to say that this

system has now made you hostage. And I

can prove that, too.

But the thing you need to understand

first is that the economy is strong. And

that's not a lie. Every single one of

those numbers is real. But to understand

this, what nobody tells you is who those

numbers are actually measuring. Because

if you're going to be held hostage, you

also need a hostage taker. And what

we're starting to see is two completely

different economies running inside the

same country. And someone much smarter

than I am have put it into words better

than I could. In September 2025, Mark

Xandy, the chief economist at Moody's

Analytics, updated his data on who's

actually spending money in America. And

his conclusion is kind of scary. As you

can see in this tweet, looking at the

data, it's not a mystery why most

Americans feel like the economy isn't

working for them. For the bottom 80%,

those making less than about $175,000 a

year, spending has just kept pace with

inflation since the pandemic, which

means that it didn't really grow. It

just matched price increases. But if you

compare that to the top 3.3% in Xand's

words, what it's showing is that they're

doing much, much, much better. But like,

duh, of course, if you have more income,

you're going to be able to spend more,

but so what? Well, remember how the

economy measures everything? When

consumer spending in the US makes up

about 70% of our GDP, I mean, [ __ ]

like, we love to consume. What this

essentially means is that 10% of people

are driving 50% of all that, which

essentially means that the GDP looks

strong on paper, but that growth is

largely being driven from one group's

stock gains and home equity. But still,

just throwing numbers at you is still

abstract until you see what I'm talking

about being played out in the real

world. Because what we're now seeing is

that companies have noticed the split

and they're actively picking sides.

Believe it or not, in the early 2000s,

McDonald's was like in this death spiral

where sales were failing and so was its

stock. But then they came up with this

brilliant idea to introduce the dollar

menu. Remember those? It was obviously

built for low-income consumers who

needed to make the most bang out of

their buck and it worked. McDonald's

revenue shot up 33% and as we know them

today, built an empire on affordable

food for everyone. But fast forward to

2025 and that's quietly no longer the

case. The McDonald's CEO has recently

told investors that traffic from

low-income households to McDonald's has

dropped by nearly double digits. And

it's because 78% of Americans now view

fast food restaurants like McDonald's as

a luxury. And instead, what he's seeing

is that highincome visitors have

skyrocketed. And as I looked even

closer, what I found is that this is

basically happening to every industry in

America. And everything is splitting in

two. Even traditional low-cost retailers

like Walmart are seeing similar trends.

Luxury hotels like Four Seasons and Ritz

Carlton are posting nearly 3% higher

revenue while economy budget hotels have

dropped 3.1%. Airlines are rapidly

building up luxury suites with caviar

service. In a problem that they're

facing is that it's overcrowded while

economy seat demand has started to

shrink. So what's becoming more and more

clear is that we're looking at what

economists call a K-shaped economy where

one line goes up and the other goes

down. And even under this same system in

loops is a sharp increase in two

completely different outcomes depending

on which side of the K you are on. And

so you might be thinking as long as

you're on top of the K, who cares? But

this is why it should scare everyone

because if things don't change, it's

only going to keep affecting everyone.

As our homie Xandy puts it right now, it

doesn't feel like the economy is perched

on a strong foundation. It's perched on

a few poles that are sticking up. And if

one of those poles gets knocked out,

then the whole economy gets knocked

down. And it's scary because he's right.

The stock market right now is being

carried by a handful of tech companies

investing heavily in AI. Job growth is

being carried almost entirely by the

healthc care sector. And consumer

spending, remember 70% of GDP, is again

being carried only by the top 10%. And

when that top 10% is continuing to own

more and more stocks to a tune of around

624,000 more than just 3 years ago

because the stock price keeps going up

and up. Now the question becomes what

happens if the market and when it

corrects? And as I'm writing this,

especially with what's going on with the

war, if this now leads to some sort of

collapse and they start pulling back

their money, there's not really going to

be anything underneath to catch that

fall. And I haven't even mentioned the

middle class that used to be the

backbone of this economy and country.

And there's a reason why there isn't any

even space for them on the K. And it's

because the middle class is actively

shrinking. What used to be 61% in 1971

is now 51% today. And most of those

people falling out of the middle class

aren't moving up, they're sliding down

in the bottom part. And like I talked

about earlier, we've already seen this

movie with the Great Depression where

the asset class will inevitably benefit

from the crash and recovery while even

years after the non-asset class stood in

bread lines. And what scares me most is

that right now the S&P 500 and consumer

sentiment are forming that exact same

shape. So what's clear is that even with

this strong economy that we see today,

what it doesn't describe is the 330

million people that make up this

country. What it more so describes is

the 33 million. But hey, at least the

DAO is over 50,000, right? So now the

question becomes, what's next? I mean,

it's pretty clear that this isn't a

broken system waiting to be fixed. And

when you consider that this has been a

working system since the age of kings

and queens, or at least the Great

Depression, truth is it will always

probably be this way. But what I'm

actually trying to say here is that this

actually means hope. Hope that if the

system is always going to be designed

this way, once you see it, you can

actually start to use it. Because if the

people running our economy is indeed

addicted to this loop that I explained,

what becomes obvious if you want to

escape this permanent underclass is that

the difference between the two economies

isn't income. 41% of people today making

between $300,000 to $500,000 a year say

that they're living paycheck to

paycheck. And when I looked even closer,

40% of people making over 500,000 are

saying the same thing. So what's clear

is that now more than ever, the line

isn't income, it's ownership. Because if

the system is set up where if you own

assets the current carries you and if

you don't, no matter how much you make

or work hard, it will always pull away

from you. So obviously what I'm saying

is easier said than done. And in fact,

it's only getting harder. But as I

record this video right now from

Croatia, what I'm constantly getting

reminded is that for all of America's

problems, that door is still open wider

than any other country on Earth. So, I'm

not going to lie to you and say that I'm

not trying to join that upper part of

the K, but I know for certain that the

more I understand how this works, the

more I know to my heart that I can only

do it in a way that's ethical and

honest. So, if you do have a problem

with me wanting to escape the permanent

underclass, you should unsubscribe right

now, and I mean it. I do not want you in

my audience because in a world of money

and power, the people who understand the

game will always do better than the

people who refuse to acknowledge it. And

that's exactly who I'm making these

videos