Editor's note: The most salient point about the following partially republished material from the
Brownstone Institute is that the Covid attack on civilization "amounted to a gigantic transfer of wealth to elites, the largest in history, followed by a destruction of wealth of the middle and lower classes." So while this is true, here is something else to consider: the oligarch class are swimming in money. Governments around the world,
including Japan (
creators of QE), are becoming increasingly authoritarian because the modern debt-based fiat monetary system depends on centralized control to survive. For
thousands of years humanity has lived under systems where power flows to those closest to the creation of money, while ordinary people absorb the cost through
inflation, debt, and declining purchasing power. Despite massive technological advances that should lower prices and improve living standards, inflation continues because productivity exists inside the same debt-driven financial structure. Governments are not preserving prosperity as much as protecting a monetary system that concentrates wealth and power at the top. The result is increasing surveillance, rising socialism and fascism, heavy regulation (regulation protects the oligarch class), and economic pressure designed to maintain a system that many now see as no longer serving the public.
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Since Lockdowns, a 12% GDP Loss; Half of US Dollar Purchasing Power Stolen
BY
Jeffrey A Tucker | June 2, 2026
Many of us have had the intuition that the economic damage from 2020 - including industrial stoppages, monetary printing, supply-chain disruptions, extended school closures, and general population demoralization - was in fact far greater than official statistics indicate.