Fact is that there really hasn't been any growth since 1970's -- we are still in stagflation and never really got out of it, just an illusion of debt. During 1970's we had low interest rates, high unemployment and low growth (stagflation) this shows the failure that capitalism is - for capitalism is based on consumerism and when all of the money is in the hands of the 1% it is impossible for this small group of people to spend enough to keep economy going. So, instead of dealing with the failure of capitalism the bankers and politicians did pretend and extend, how did they do this??? Well, Paul Volcker US Fed Chairman came in and in a few months raise interest rates all the way to 20% -- many business went out of business and the system cleaned itself out. The US govt could afford this debt because it's deficient was much lower under Reagan than it is now, so did govt act responsible? Nope, of course not -- the US immediately gave tax breaks to the richest 1% and started spending money on the military and social programs that the US did not have the money to pay for (deficiet has been growing and growing since). Then we had laws changed and capital expansion of debt was given to average person, credit cards, car loans, mortages ect. The lending into housing made house prices go up and this gave people illusion that they had money that was not really there (house has no intrinsic value for if everyone sold their house at the same time, or if the bankers would not loan money for house purchases that drive up the prices -- you would see that your house is not really worth what you paid for it). This allowed people to use their houses like an ATM and buy things with credit -- crash of 2008 happens and we have had no real growth since -- now average person is so indebted the can't spend anymore or take on anymore debt because their wages have not gone up . We are back in stagflation and all the money that the central banks print keeps interest rates low and allows corporations to buy back their stocks (which is not growth, it is price manipulation). Who owns most of the stocks (1%) they are getting richer because asset prices are going up and they own most of the assets. This is all an illusion, the emperor has no clothes and Mario is right -- buy gold, silver, and bitcoin. Get out of the fiat Matrix as much as you can. Good Luck!!