The Best Economy In 50 Years Is A Lie

0:00The economy has never been stronger. The

0:02Dow Jones just closed above 52,000

0:05points, an all-time high. The S&P 500 is

0:07up over 20% this year, and unemployment

0:09just fell to 4.2%. So, on paper, this is

0:13the strongest economy in a generation.

0:15And yet, you can't afford a house.

0:17Groceries cost 26% more than they did 5

0:19years ago, and coffee is up over 200%.

0:23Your paycheck disappears before the

0:24month is over. So, if the economy is

0:26this strong, why are you this broke? Why

0:29do you feel this far behind? Well,

0:31here's the number that should make you

0:33angry. Across an entire working

0:35lifetime, your wages have gone up 18%.

0:38Sounds pretty good, but over that same

0:40stretch, corporate profits have gone up

0:42718%. That's not a booming economy

0:46reaching everyone. That is a booming

0:47economy reaching someone else. And it's

0:50not just you. It was designed this way.

0:52Those two things, the record high stock

0:54market and your empty bank account, are

0:57not a contradiction. They are the same

0:59system working exactly as intended. The

1:02reason that it's happening is not what

1:03you think. It is not the government.

1:05It's not politicians. And it's not

1:07greedy corporations. It's a hidden

1:09mechanism sitting underneath all of it.

1:11One that's been quietly draining you for

1:1355 years. And once you see it, you

1:15cannot unsee it. Once you see it, you

1:17understand exactly why the greatest

1:19wealth rotation in global history is

1:21underway right now and what you can do

1:24to end up on the right side of it. The

1:26last time the market was this high,

1:27while regular people felt this poor, the

1:29year was 1929, which is the same year

1:32that the Great Depression kicked off.

1:34So, by the end of this video, you will

1:35know the exact mechanism that created

1:37this gap, why it just kicked into

1:39overdrive this week, and the one asset

1:41on Earth that you can buy to protect

1:43yourself. Let's get into it. I want you

1:45to picture two families right now in

1:48this country at the exact same moment.

1:50Family number one is sitting at the

1:51kitchen table. Groceries are up 26% in 5

1:54years. Ground beef is up 64% as you can

1:56see right here. Coffee is up more than

1:58100%. Their electric bill is up 40%.

2:01They're looking at a mortgage that they

2:02can't refinance because rates are stuck

2:04near 6.5%. A median home payment of

2:07$2,000 a month that is double what it

2:09was 5 years ago and a credit card

2:11balance growing at a 29% interest rate.

2:14And their paycheck to top it all off has

2:16not kept up with a single one of those

2:18numbers. And family number two on the

2:21other side of the country turns on CNBC.

2:23The stock market is at an all-time high.

2:25The wealthiest Americans now hold the

2:27highest share of their wealth in stocks

2:29that has ever been recorded. You can

2:30take a look right here. Higher than the

2:32peak of the dot bubble. Every time the

2:34market ticks up, they get richer while

2:37they sleep. Same country, same week, two

2:40completely different economies. And what

2:42almost nobody on financial television

2:44will tell you is why. Why is family

2:47number one running faster and falling

2:49further behind while family number two

2:51cannot lose? It's not because family

2:53number one works harder, and it's

2:55certainly not because of some greedy

2:56politician. It's because of a decision

2:58that was made in a single year. And I'm

3:00going to keep bringing you back to that

3:01year for the next 15 minutes. That year

3:03is 1971. So, let me explain to you why

3:06this is so important to understand and

3:08why this is important to you and how you

3:10could save yourself from the silent

3:11economic collapse. Let me show you the

3:13receipts. You already saw two of the

3:15numbers that prove this in the first 30

3:17seconds of the video. Now, I want you to

3:19hold three numbers in your head because

3:21the third one is the key that unlocks

3:23the other two. The first number is 1971.

3:26That's the year that everything broke.

3:28The second is that 18%. So, how much

3:30wages have grown adjusted for the real

3:32cost of living across an entire working

3:34lifetime. And the third is that 718%

3:37which is how much corporate profits grew

3:39over that same window. We have 18%

3:42growth versus 718% growth in one year.

3:45That explains the gap between them. Hold

3:47those three inside your head for the

3:48rest of this video, because together

3:50they are the entire story of why the

3:52economy is fantastic for some people,

3:54but the worst it's ever been for others.

3:56Here's what happened in 1971. For most

3:59of American history, when workers

4:00produced more, they got paid more.

4:02Productivity and wages rose together

4:04line for line, decade after decade. You

4:06can see on this chart right here, if the

4:08country got more efficient, the person

4:10doing the work took home a bigger

4:11paycheck. That was the deal. That was

4:13the entire promise of the American

4:14economy. But then in 1971, the United

4:17States severed the link between the

4:20dollar and gold. The dollar became pure

4:23fiat, which simply means it's backed by

4:25nothing but the promise of the people

4:27printing it. It could be printed out of

4:29thin air and it's attached to nothing.

4:32And in exact year, the two lines that

4:34had moved together for generations split

4:36apart. Again, look at that right here.

4:39Productivity kept climbing, but wages

4:42flatlined. And they've never reconnected

4:44since. Not once in the last 55 years. So

4:47where did all of that money go? Because

4:49productivity didn't stop. Workers kept

4:52getting more efficient. Technology kept

4:53compounding and making short of that.

4:55All of that new wealth is real. And it

4:57did not vanish. It got redirected. Since

5:011964, corporate profits are up 718%. The

5:04S&P 500 is up 630%. Wages are only up

5:0818%. So corporate profits grew 40 times

5:11faster than wages. And the mechanism

5:13that did the redirecting is again not a

5:16greedy politician, not a greedy

5:18businessman, but the money printer.

5:20Here's the part that ties it together,

5:22and it's the single most important idea

5:24in this entire video. In an honest

5:26monetary system, technology makes your

5:29life cheaper. More efficiency means

5:31lower prices, and your paycheck

5:33stretches further every year without you

5:36having to do anything. That's what's

5:37called deflation, and it's the natural

5:39reward for progress. In the same way

5:42that iPhones get faster and smaller and

5:44more efficient every year, that's how

5:46your money should work. It should go

5:48further and further and further without

5:50you having to do much of anything. But

5:51in the system that we're in now, where

5:53you can print money out of thin air, the

5:55central bank prints money faster than

5:57technology can actually lower prices. So

6:00instead of prices falling and your wages

6:02buying more, prices rise and the new

6:04money floods into assets first. Stocks,

6:07real estate, anything the wealthy

6:09already own. So all of the gains from

6:11technology, the gains that you helped

6:13create, do not reach you as a cheaper

6:16life. They get captured by whoever is

6:18closest to the money printer. The wage

6:21earner chases a dollar that's losing

6:22value every year, but the asset owner

6:25rides the wave of new money straight up.

6:28That is not a side effect of the system.

6:30That is the system. It is a wealth

6:32transfer machine running quietly every

6:35single day for the last 55 years. By the

6:38way, real quick before we go any

6:39further, if this is starting to click

6:41for you, if you can feel that this is

6:42the thing nobody explained to you,

6:44comment the word 1971 below. One word I

6:48want as many people as possible to see

6:49the year that this started. Because most

6:51of the country still has no idea.

6:53Comment 1971. Let's get back into it.

6:56Now, here is why this stopped being

6:58history this week and actually became a

7:00live event. Because this whole machine

7:03only works as long as the people running

7:05it keep the money printer flowing. And

7:07this week, they told you that they were

7:09about to open the floodgates again,

7:11right when they should be doing the

7:13opposite. Thursday morning, the June

7:15jobs report came out. The expectation

7:16was 114,000 new jobs, but the actual

7:19number that we got was 57,000, barely

7:22half. And it actually gets worse because

7:25the two months before that were revised

7:27down by another 74,000 jobs. So, we are

7:30massively overestimating the strength

7:32and growth of the US economy. Since the

7:34start of 2025, the government has now

7:37revised its own jobs numbers lower in 14

7:40of the last 17 months by a combined

7:43710,000 jobs. So if you apply the

7:45average downward revision to Thursday's

7:47number, the real number of jobs that was

7:49added last month is probably closer to

7:52just 15,000 jobs. And the unemployment

7:55rate, it actually fell to 4.2% which

7:57sounds like good news, but it's the

7:59exact opposite. And here is the slight

8:01of hand. It fell because 832,000 people

8:05left the labor force in a single month.

8:07The number of Americans actually holding

8:09a job actually dropped by over half a

8:12million. So the unemployment rate looks

8:14healthy because you have a lot of people

8:15retiring and they're no longer counted

8:17as unemployed. But if you take them out

8:18of the math, that is not a strong labor

8:20market. What we're experiencing right

8:22now is an economy that's emptying itself

8:24out and barely hanging on. Now, here's

8:27the number that should stop you, Cole,

8:28because this is the one nobody on

8:30Financial Television has mentioned.

8:32Labor force participation among prime

8:34AED Americans, people 25 to 54, the core

8:37of the entire workforce, just fell

8:39almost one full percentage point in a

8:41single month. That is the second largest

8:44monthly drop ever recorded in data going

8:46back to the 1940s. The only other time

8:48that it ever fell harder was April of

8:502020 when the entire economy was

8:52physically shut down by the pandemic.

8:55Every other match on that list is a year

8:57like 1953, 1960, and 1968, the years

9:01just before major recessions. Let that

9:03sit for a second. Outside of a total

9:05pandemic shutdown, we just posted the

9:07worst workforce collapse in 80 years.

9:10Yet, the headlines told you that the job

9:11market was strong and that unemployment

9:13went down. That's the entire game in a

9:16single data point. The number that they

9:17show you is designed to hide the number

9:20that they don't. They never want to

9:21reveal what's actually happening because

9:22if they did, you wouldn't be too happy

9:24about it. Now, zoom out to what that

9:26does to the money printer. As many of

9:28you know, we have a brand new Federal

9:29Reserve chairman, Kevin Worsh. A new guy

9:31is in charge of the money printer. He

9:33was just confirmed a few weeks ago, and

9:35[clears throat] he walked in doing

9:36exactly what every new Fed chair does.

9:38He talked tough on inflation. He

9:40actually said that prices are too high.

9:42Every new Fed chair likes to establish

9:44their credibility in the first month by

9:46saying this exact same thing. Every

9:48single one, it's like a ritual. It means

9:50nothing. Watch what happens next

9:51instead. Because within days of all of

9:54that tough talk, Worsh let it slip that

9:57short-term inflation expectations had

9:59already come down. The market can read

10:01the setup perfectly. We have a labor

10:03market that is cracking. And it gives

10:04the Fed the excuse that it was waiting

10:05for to cut interest rates and print

10:07money out of thin air. And real quick,

10:10because this is the part that matters

10:11most for you personally, if you're

10:12getting value out of this breakdown,

10:14only about 16% of you watching this

10:15right now are actually subscribed. So,

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10:20the second a new breakdown goes live, it

10:22genuinely helps this channel more than

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10:25work. I appreciate every single one of

10:27you who does it. And real quick, I just

10:29launched a community for serious Bitcoin

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10:39founding members get pricing locked in

10:41for life. Now, back to the video. So,

10:44the Fed is going to print a ton of money

10:46out of thin air. that much is known. The

10:48real question is what that does to you.

10:50And it depends entirely on whether

10:52you're an asset owner or not. Before we

10:54get into what this means to you

10:55specifically, a quick word from who

10:57makes this channel possible. If

10:59everything I just walked you through has

11:00you thinking about retirement and you

11:02don't want to sell your Bitcoin or hand

11:04it to some Tradfi guy who doesn't

11:05understand, that is exactly what Strong

11:07Wealth was built for. An adviser who

11:09shares your worldview or retirement plan

11:11designed around your Bitcoin in a

11:12strategy that adapts to whatever the

11:14market regime does next. Book a free

11:16discovery call at strongwealth.net/joe.

11:18That link is strongwealth.net/joe.

11:20Link in the video description. Special

11:22thanks to strongwealth for sponsoring

11:23this video. Now, back to it. Look at

11:25where the pressure is landing right now.

11:28Housing is the clearest example on the

11:30board. Morgan Stanley just modeled three

11:32separate paths for mortgage rates. 4%,

11:345%, and 6%. And in all three, housing

11:37affordability never returns to where it

11:39was before 2022. Not even in the best

11:41case. The median home payment stays near

11:43$2,000 a month and around 70% of

11:45existing homeowners are locked into

11:47rates under 5%. So, nobody is selling

11:50and existing home sales just hit their

11:52slowest pace since 1995. In 1980, a

11:56house cost about 3.6 years of the median

11:58income. But today, that same house costs

12:01more than 5 years of income. It's the

12:04same house. It just takes more dollars

12:05to buy it. Not because it got better,

12:07but because each dollar buys less. That

12:10is what has happened since 1971 when we

12:12started printing money out of thin air

12:14showing up in the single biggest

12:16purchase of your life. And now you may

12:18be saying, "Well, Joe, if all of this is

12:19true, then how on earth is the economy

12:21still chugging along? Why aren't we in a

12:23recession yet?" And this is where the

12:25trap closes on the average American

12:27because credit card delinquencies just

12:29hit 13.1% which is the highest level

12:32since the great financial crisis. The

12:34bottom half of the country is now

12:36borrowing money just to cover groceries

12:37and gas and everything else. The savings

12:40cushion from the pandemic is gone. So

12:42when the Fed prints the next wave of

12:44money, the family at the kitchen table

12:46does not get rescued. They get inflation

12:48on top of debt they already cannot pay.

12:51Now again, you might be thinking, Joe,

12:52if all of this is true, if they're about

12:54to print a ton of money out of thin air

12:56and the dollar is a thing getting

12:57destroyed, then why not just sit in cash

12:59and wait it out? And that is the exact

13:01trap. Because cash is the one thing they

13:04are guaranteed to destroy. Now, let me

13:06explain how this works. Since 2020

13:08alone, the dollar has lost roughly 30%

13:11of its purchasing power. So sitting in

13:14cash is not staying safe. It's

13:16volunteering to have your wealth

13:17destroyed and sit on the wrong side of

13:20the wealth transfer. Here is the entire

13:22thing I need to get across to you in one

13:24line. Every time the financial system

13:26wobbles, the Federal Reserve prints

13:28money out of thin air. Asset prices rip

13:31higher and everyone holding dollars

13:33quietly pays for the rescue. In 2008,

13:36instead of letting the economy collapse,

13:37they print it. In 2020, they print it.

13:40And in the 2023 banking crisis, which

13:42most of you don't even know happened,

13:43they print it. Every inflection point

13:45for the last 17 years, the same choice

13:48every time without exception. They're

13:50not going to crash the market. They are

13:52going to crash the dollar to save the

13:55market. And that decision was baked in

13:58all the way back in 1971, 55 years ago,

14:00the moment that the dollar had nothing

14:02standing behind it anymore. Which brings

14:04me to the only asset on the planet that

14:06sits on the winning side of that divide

14:08and cannot be printed. It's not real

14:10estate, which the Fed can strangle with

14:12interest rates. It's not even gold

14:13because they can lease and suppress.

14:15It's Bitcoin because Bitcoin has a

14:17supply that is fixed forever at 21

14:19million units. No chair, no committee,

14:21no political party can print one extra

14:24coin to bail everyone out. It is the

14:26first asset in human history where the

14:281971 trick of printing money out of thin

14:31air to fix the problem doesn't actually

14:33work. And the proof of this is just as

14:36clean. After the 2020 print, when they

14:38printed a ton of money, Bitcoin went

14:40from $5,000 to $69,000

14:43in just a couple of months. After the

14:452023 banking crisis, it went from

14:47$16,000 to over $100,000. Every single

14:50time the Fed has flooded the system with

14:52cash in the last decade, the asset that

14:55cannot be printed has been the single

14:57best performing thing coming out on the

14:59other side. That's not a coincidence.

15:00That is exactly what you would expect

15:02the moment that you understand what the

15:04entire game is. It's the printing press

15:06versus the things that it can't touch.

15:08So, think back to those two families,

15:11the one at the kitchen table and the one

15:13watching CNBC and looking at their

15:14portfolio. The whole reason that they

15:17live in two different economies yet in

15:19the same country is because of the money

15:21printer. 1971, the year that the dollar

15:24was cut loose and the wealth transfer

15:25machine was switched on. Family number

15:28two wins because they owned the assets

15:30that the new money floods into. Family

15:32number one lost because they held the

15:35dollars that new money destroys. The

15:37next print is coming. They are going to

15:39print money out of thin air and it's

15:40coming very soon. Wars is being walked

15:42into it by a labor market that is

15:44already cracking. And when it hits,

15:46every single dollarpriced asset is going

15:48to repric violently higher. And every

15:50dollar in your savings account is going

15:52to buy less. The only question left, the

15:55only one that remains is which side you

15:57decide to take before the money starts

15:59flowing. Because after it flows, the gap

16:01does not close. It just gets wider.

16:04Exactly like it has every single year

16:06since 1971. If you want to understand

16:09the machine underneath all of this, the

16:11deeper fight over who actually controls

16:13Bitcoin and whether it stays the one

16:14asset they can't touch, that is the

16:16breakdown that I just put out and it's

16:17the natural next watch. I'll see you

16:19over there. Channel members also got

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16:32in the next one.