USA has the World Reserve Currency. So USA printed $ (no work/energy) and bought trillions of products/services (real work/energy) from the world. ANYONE that pushed back was eliminated (CIA operates out of 800 bases in 70 countries). So what is at play is the US Citizens sit around doing nothing (60% of jobs provide no value - desk jobs) and people sat around, eating industrial sludge sold as food. The rest of the world had to work to make money. Great book, "Hidden Repression" by Alex Gladstein.