The U.S. economy presents a peculiar paradox: abundant on paper, fragile in execution. Dollar-denominated wealth exists as promise, yet the actual productive capacity to fulfill those promises has eroded significantly. Manufacturing infrastructure has hollowed out, supply chains are fragmented, and real goods production has shifted elsewhere. When financial assets expand faster than underlying economic capacity, the gap widens—a dynamic that reshapes how global investors view currency stability and asset allocation. Understanding this real-vs-nominal disconnect matters for anyone evaluating long-term economic security.