Date: Saturday, 21 February 2026
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/empirical-proof-that-the-empires
https://theduran.com/empirical-proof-that-the-empires-investors-are-stupid-psychopaths
Empirical Proof that The Empire’s Investors Are Stupid Psychopaths
20 February 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
First, here, will be the empirical evidences (otherwise called documentations) that the empire’s — this being the only surviving international empire, the U.S. and its colonies or ‘allies’ — long-term economic trend is clearly economic decline, and that the long-term economic trend in the non-empire’s Asian economies is clearly and outstandingly economic growth, so that investing in Asian economies makes a lot more sense than investing in the U.S.-and-allied countries does.
Then, will come the empirical evidences that right now, global investors are especially investing in EU countries, which constitute the majority of the empire, and which is where the long-term and especially near-term economic-growth-rates are far below the global average, and even below America’s (which is higher than in Europe though still below the global average). Japan’s is even lower than that (rock-bottom), but South Korea’s is a bit higher than the global average and therefore has the only average or better-than-average prospects of any of the countries that are inside the empire. None of the empire’s countries is better-than-average for investing. But global investors now are instead preferring the EU countries, even though none of them actually have bright prospects — and Germany, which is the largest of them, especially doesn’t. If the imperial country (America) is now extracting wealth from its colonies — cannibalizing them — then global investors are pouring money into a Europe that will become even worse economically than it already is — and this would then be not only stupid but psychopathic, yet it seems to be the case, as the following evidences will show.
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First, the documentations that U.S.-empire countries are bad places to invest in:
During the years 1998-2022, according to the World Bank, China’s economy, measured in GDP PPP ( Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity and this reflects what the residents there experienced), multiplied 9.98 times. Russia’s multiplied 6.66 times. India’s multiplied 6.30 times. The world’s multiplied 3.77 times. South Korea’s also multiplied 3.77 times. America’s multiplied 2.81 times. The EU’s multiplied 2.68 times. Japan’s multiplied 1.77 times.
Measured in straight GDP (which mainly reflects what investors there experienced) these multiples were China 17.44 times, Russia 8.30 times, India 8.14 times, South Korea 4.4 times, World 3.18 times, U.S. 2.81 times, EU 2.10 times, and Japan 1.04 times.
On 28 September 2022, I headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe” and documented that because America’s secondary sanctions against violators of America’s primary sanctions against Russian natural gas and oil (which had been the chief because lowest-cost energy sources to the EU) had forced energy-prices way up in the EU, European companies thus were shutting down EU factories and opening factories in America — which has lower energy-prices (and fewer regulations, and workers’-benefits) than now prevail in Europe due to the increased energy-prices in Europe that result from America’s anti-Russian sanctions — Europe’s economies are consequently functioning even worse than before those anti-Russia sanctions were imposed. Then, on 24 June 2023, I headlined “Now the Pay-off Comes from Blowing Up the Nord Stream Pipeline”, and reported that now the energy that Europe had been buying from Russia was mainly being purchased at multiply higher prices from America — the very country that is now exploiting Europe — than had been the case when Russia had been the main energy-supplier to Europe.
In other words: now, during the period of the decline and fall of the American empire — the world’s only remaining empire — the imperial power, America, is actually cannibalizing its colonies. So long as they remain America’s colones, and continue being exploited by America, the EU — which has long been growing at a far slower rate than the worldwide economy does — will consequently be performing worse and worse as compared to the world’s economy. And the economies that are now the world’s leading economies are the ones in Asia that (unlike Japan) are NOT colonies of America — such as China, Russia, and India — these are actually the best nations to invest in.
Second, here, will be the documentation that investors are instead pouring MORE, not LESS, money into investments in the UNDERPERFORMING economies inside the EU:
Here is the opening of an article in today’s Financial Times, which indicates that despite all of the massive and overwhelming economic evidence that Europe has bad prospects and that Asia has superb prospects, investors right now are favoring EU stocks above all others:
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https://www.ft.com/content/80173261-2b72-41f7-9eae-490aabb14623
20 February 2026
Global investors are pouring record sums into European equities, as a desire to reduce exposure to the US meets growing optimism over the state of the region’s economy.
European stocks are headed for their highest ever monthly inflows in February, following two consecutive record weekly flows of about $10bn, according to data from EPFR, which tracks ETF and mutual fund flows.
The continent’s blue-chip Stoxx Europe 600 index has punched through a series of record highs this month, as have indices in the UK, France and Spain. European bourses have benefited from big investors’ desire to diversify away from Wall Street and its massive technology sector, which has been buffeted this year by concerns over a potential AI bubble.
“It’s a lot of global investors wanting to diversify away from an expensive US market,” said Sharon Bell, senior equities strategist at Goldman Sachs, adding this was particularly the case for US-based investors looking overseas. “Europe as an equity market offers a different exposure . . . there’s less tech.”
A rotation in stock market leadership away from the AI giants has boosted European markets with their heavy weighting to “old economy” sectors such as banks and natural resources. The booming demand for physical assets has propelled the UK’s FTSE 100 almost 7 per cent higher this year, with stocks such as Weir Group and Antofagasta up more than 20 per cent.
Much of the cash has flowed to funds exposed to non-US markets, rather than funds tracking Europe specifically, amid fears that global portfolios have become overly dominated by expensive AI-linked stocks.
That diversification has powered a host of other global markets ahead of Wall Street this year. The S&P 500 index sits 76th out of 92 major benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg this year.
“Diversifying your currency, diversifying your sector and diversifying your country has become the hottest topic,” Bell said. “People are effectively scanning the world and saying — which are the cheapest pockets? Where are the opportunities?”
Many investors believe Europe offers one such opportunity: the Stoxx Europe 600 trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.3, compared with 27.7 for the S&P, according to LSEG data.
Europe-focused funds have also attracted steady inflows over the past 12 months, following years of relentless outflows, the EPFR data shows, helped by signs that the gloom over the economy is fading. …
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
