U.S. manufacturing may still show rising output, but employment and hours worked are falling — a sign that production gains are driven by automation, firm consolidation, or capital-intensive activity rather than job growth.

The US Federal Reserve, through its ultra-loose monetary policies, has inflated a series of asset bubbles – AI Bubble, Housing Bubble (HB) 2.0, and the Bond Bubble – and the bursting of these bubbles is very likely to start in 2026.