Americans are NOT wealthy: The truth about the US economy

Many Western economists and media outlets claim that Americans are wealthier than Europeans, but this is not true; it's based on a misunderstanding of the difference between average wealth and median wealth. Ben Norton explains how the extreme inequality in the US make its average wealth misleadingly look high, and why GDP per capita is not a good measurement. He debunks the myth of "Europoors", which is often spread by Donald Trump supporters. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzFUd8uj7pA Topics 0:00 The myth that Americans are wealthy 1:15 Average wealth vs median wealth 3:50 Data on US median wealth 6:42 Wealth inequality (Gini coefficient) 9:31 Poverty and homelessness 10:19 USA vs Europe 12:02 Wealth concentration of US elites 13:28 Distribution of growth in income 15:01 GDP per capita is misleading 21:18 US GDP by sector 23:13 Imputed rent and GDP 25:05 Life expectancy, mortality, etc. 27:10 US healthcare system 28:40 US health system vs OECD 32:58 Ridiculous "Europoor" myth 33:32 Trump cuts taxes on rich 34:27 Trump family corruption 36:20 Insider trading 36:56 Myth of American dream 38:18 Outro

What is the US strategy in its war against Iran? Is the Trump administration seriously committed to negotiations to make a deal? JD Vance accidentally exposed the USA's plan, to use the talks to buy time to refill oil reserves and stabilize the economy. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BojBCeM6o Topics 0:00 US negotiations with Iran 0:56 Trump considers restarting war 1:46 Strait of Hormuz 3:37 Israel and Lebanon 5:02 JD Vance exposes US strategy 6:27 (CLIP) JD Vance on Iran 7:31 Oil market 8:22 Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) 10:24 (CLIP) Trump on oil reserves 10:52 US strategy 11:56 Iran's strategy 13:12 USA violates agreements 14:18 Iran's economic nuclear weapon 15:24 Oil price 16:14 Parallels to Ukraine war 21:41 New Iranian government 25:55 USA lost. The war backfired 28:00 Outro

The US-based right-wing Chinese billionaire Miles Guo (Guo Wengui), who worked closely with Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for committing $1 billion of fraud. Ben Norton explains how Western governments and media outlets support "dissidents" from countries they don't like, who are often corrupt grifters and con artists; and how fake "experts" make money by spreading absurd disinformation about China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, etc. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSVBsyDz1ks Topics 0:00 Billionaire fraudster Miles Guo 1:03 Links to Trump, Steven Bannon 4:34 US DOJ prosecution 6:31 China's charges 8:06 US media whitewashing 12:25 Corrupt West-backed "dissidents" 15:23 US support for dictators 17:12 Pro-West Chinese "dissidents" 19:40 Soviet "dissidents" 21:07 North Korean defector Yeonmi Park 24:18 Yeonmi Park becomes a meme 25:36 (CLIP) Yeonmi Park on Joe Rogan 26:12 Absurd propaganda 26:53 Park jumps on the Trump train 27:47 Western media has no standards 28:56 Fake China "expert" Gordon G Chang 34:00 Ai Weiwei change of heart 39:16 Western imperialist hypocrisy 41:17 Outro

US Big Tech corporations are paying influencers to spread anti-China, pro-AI disinformation on social media. Ben Norton explains why Silicon Valley fears Chinese competition and seeks to monopolize artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, to impose the global dominance of the USA in an imperialist unipolar order. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BLnM-gxj-o Topics 0:00 Silicon Valley spreads propaganda 2:08 US govt helps Elon Musk pollute 4:52 Scapegoating China 5:32 AI arms race 7:34 (CLIP) Ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt 7:52 Silicon Valley wants monopolies 10:02 (CLIP) Peter Thiel loves monopolies 10:20 Sam Altman lobbies US govt 12:40 OpenAI is losing lots of money 14:02 Pentagon works with Big Tech 15:54 Anthropic conflict with Trump admin 17:25 Dario Amodei backs Cold War Two 18:28 USA wants unipolar world 20:01 Palantir and techno-fascism 23:26 Totalitarian police state 26:10 Larry Ellison buys up US media 26:44 Surveillance Valley 30:58 Monopoly and hegemony 32:27 Imperialism and Big Tech 34:48 Outro

The USA and Iran are holding negotiations to end the war, but Tehran condemned Washington for violating the agreement, because Israel keeps attacking Lebanon. US Vice President JD Vance appeared to criticize Israel, but Ben Norton explains the deep hypocrisy of the United States, which is still giving Netanyahu billions of dollars of weapons and military aid. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogLemf3er4 Topics 0:00 Talks between USA & Iran 0:35 Iran says US violates agreement 1:50 Will Israel sabotage Iran deal? 2:58 Israel needs US military support 4:12 JD Vance: US is Israel's only ally 5:04 (CLIP) JD Vance: US military aid 5:47 (CLIP) JD Vance on Israel 7:57 Put up or shut up 8:40 Billions in US aid to Israel 9:42 Military-industrial complex 11:03 Unsinkable aircraft carrier 11:48 Tails don't wag dogs 12:36 Trump warns of oil shortages 13:25 (CLIP) Trump: 4 weeks of reserves 14:07 Trump threatens Iran again 14:33 (CLIP) Fox News on Trump threats 15:14 Iran has more leverage 16:08 Israel's goals in Lebanon 17:28 Israel takes over Gaza 18:40 US sends more weapons to Israel 19:14 Hypocrisy 19:45 Outro

The US government has signed an agreement to end its war on Iran. It is now widely admitted that Washington lost, and Tehran won. Ben Norton explains why Donald Trump failed, and how this has massive geopolitical implications for the Global South. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NOUxBUSM64 Check out our related report on how Iran destroyed US military bases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wC4KuEcWI Topics 0:00 USA & Iran sign deal 0:53 US lost the war 2:21 US lifts oil sanctions 4:14 Details of US-Iran deal 7:25 Strait of Hormuz 8:56 US agrees to end sanctions 10:13 $300 billion investment fund 14:08 Frozen assets 14:36 Nuclear weapons 15:37 Previous nuclear deal, JCPOA 18:00 Why USA lost the war 21:33 Victory for Global South 25:35 Destroyed US military bases 26:43 Historic defeat of imperialism 27:46 Outro

Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire, with the IPO of his company SpaceX. He is a symbol of how the United States has become an oligarchy, where elections are bought by rich elites and large corporations, and extreme wealth is concentrated in a few hands. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj-hd3l4dSo Topics 0:00 Elon Musk, world's first trillionaire 0:50 Oligarchy 1:54 SpaceX IPO 3:06 SpaceX is losing lots of money 4:13 Wall Street changes the rules 5:39 Trump coin pump and dump 6:14 Reasons to avoid SpaceX 7:04 Musk: symbol of US oligarchy 8:45 Wealth concentration 9:55 Gilded Age & robber barons 11:13 Money wins US elections 13:06 Elon Musk funded Trump 14:52 Larry Ellison buys up media 17:14 Capitalist class 18:19 Progressive Era 19:27 Great Depression & New Deal 20:08 Golden Age of capitalism 20:59 Tax rates 22:08 Tax burden shifts onto workers 23:24 Billionaires avoid taxes 24:34 Neoliberalism 25:18 Financial crisis & QE 26:54 Neofeudalism / technofeudalism 28:27 Artificial intelligence (AI) 29:24 Universal basic income (UBI) 30:50 Nationalize Big Tech 33:04 China's alternative 33:58 Outro

Gold has officially overtaken Treasury securities (US government debt) as the top asset held by global central banks, according to a report by the European Central Bank (ECB). Ben Norton explains how dedollarization is continuing, gradually and steadily. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmyWn2lrXBM Topics 0:00 Decline of US dollar dominance 0:55 Debasement trade 1:42 Central banks buy gold 3:59 Gold overtakes US Treasuries 5:36 Top countries buying gold 7:00 West's seizure of Russian assets 8:54 Alleged unofficial gold holdings 10:16 Falling dollar share of reserves 12:14 Reasons for fall in gold price 14:58 EU hypocrisy 16:26 China keeps buying gold 18:05 China calls for multipolar system 19:13 De-dollarization is continuing 20:32 Outro

The AI bubble has caused the most concentrated and overvalued stock market in US history. The billionaire CEOs of Big Tech corporations fear it may pop soon, so they changed the rules on Wall Street so that, mere days after their IPOs, SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic will be given "fast track" inclusion in major index funds, despite the fact that they are losing tons of money. These corporate oligarchs want to use average retail investors as exit liquidity, looting pensions, 401(k)s, and other retirement funds, all so Elon Musk can become the world's first trillionaire. Ben Norton explains the scandal. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh3d8xO9NHg Topics 0:00 US stock market bubble 1:08 (CLIP) Ray Dalio on AI bubble 1:37 Comparisons to past bubbles 3:38 Market cap to GDP 4:50 Concentration of stock market 6:52 Magnificent 7 stocks 7:28 Monopolies eat the economy 8:37 Corporate profits break records 9:35 USA slashes corporate taxes 10:40 Plan to loot retirement funds 11:38 SpaceX is absurdly overvalued 12:32 SpaceX is losing money 13:51 SpaceX IPO is a trap 17:00 Elon Musk, first trillionaire 18:08 OpenAI's shady IPO scheme 19:32 Many IPOs at peaks of bubbles 21:51 Bogus Big Tech earnings reports 24:09 AI circular financing scheme 25:09 Animal spirits 25:49 Unregulated financial looting 26:54 Outro

A comprehensive global survey found that people in most countries see the United States as the biggest threat to the world, and they prefer China over the US. Ben Norton analyzes the results of the Democracy Perception Index. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UhHqPGFGos Topics 0:00 Shifting global political order 1:35 Democracy Perception Index 3:08 USA is biggest threat to world 4:25 US military bases unpopular 5:36 Negative perception of USA 6:25 China more popular than US 8:07 US war against Iran 9:06 Israel-Palestine 9:40 Ukraine war 10:14 Taiwan 11:14 Greenland 11:54 Countries progressing 13:15 Democracy 17:33 USA is an oligarchy 20:20 End of end of history 21:15 Outro