While We Focused on Fripperies, the Foundations Have Rotted Away - LewRockwell

 While the Everything Bubble has soared to new heights, consumer confidence has fallen to new lows.

For your consideration, four charts that tell a single story: while those Americans who have benefited so immensely from the Everything Bubble in stocks, housing, crypto, bat guano, etc.–every asset under the sun–have spent lavishly on fripperies, the foundations of everyday life for the bottom 90% have rotted away.

Yes, I know: stocks are up, and AI will enrich us all, so since everything’s great for me, it’s great for everyone. Nice, but not true. The reality is the foundations of an affordable quality of life for the bottom 90% who haven’t been enriched by the Everything Bubble have rotted away while the top 10% jetted around the world immiserating the everyday lives of the locals.....

.....Those who dismiss all of the above as “not true” or “it’s their fault” are terrified of admitting the truth: the foundations of life in America have rotted away while the wealthiest 10% are enjoying the wealth generated by history’s greatest credit-asset bubble......

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/08/charles-hugh-smith/while-we-focused-on-fripperies-the-foundations-have-rotted-away/

.....Behind the shift is a supercharge U.S. economy that in the course of a generation has created a larger and wealthier class of Americans that views travel as an essential rather than a luxury. Older Americans, who are driving this new era of travel, hold about $110 trillion in wealth. They’re also living longer, and looking to make the most of those years.....

..... And it’s not just freewheeling baby boomers. Younger generations, who place a high value on experiences, are spending on travel instead of buying houses and having kids.....

....It wasn’t just “working hard” or “smart investing” that generated $70 trillion in new “wealth” since 2020, it was luck: being in one’s peak earning years when assets such as houses were still affordable, and then owning those assets during history’s greatest credit-asset bubble, arguably from Q1 2009 to the present, or from either Q1 2020 or Q3 2022. Take your pick, the results are the same: tens of trillions of “free money” wealth for those older, wealthier Americans who bought assets before the Everything Bubble inflated.....