You can break it down into real assets. There’s more developed physical property than in prior generations. More infrastructure. More advanced business capital. Its not strictly inflation.

However, a lot of the accumulated wealth is purely speculative. The “Magnificent Seven” stocks:

Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet, Tesla (TSLA) and Meta

saw their valuations surge 140% from the 2022 slump. Does anyone seriously believe these firms grew their physical capital stock or cultivated a larger and more efficient workforce at that scale within a meager two years?

On the flip side, you’ve got a great number of countries and economies actively under sanction at an international level. China’s Huawei is easily on par with the American Apple, but US restrictions on their sale make their stock a dead letter on Wall Street. Russian mineral exports have boomed as the sanctions have curtailed their ability to participate in international financial markets. The Cuban bio-medical industry is riding the bleeding edge - producing new treatments for everything from lung cancer to kidney failure to COVID at a breakneck pace - but can’t export any of this technology due to the US embargo and blockade. Venezuela’s economy grew 40% in the last year, largely thanks to renewed trade with Brazil, but you won’t see that on any kind of stock ticker. South Africa’s economy is booming with all the new trade forced around the Horn of Africa due to the Houthi attacks in the Gulf of Adan.

The wealth this article is describing is heavily divorced from the real utility being rolled out and delivered internationally. Americans are building an empire of paper promises, while the BRICS and their affiliates engage in an unprecedented economic development program.