The US economy is booming – but fewer and fewer are reaping the benefits. The Keiser Report crunched the numbers behind America’s dwindling middle class, and warned that the country’s young are in for a rough, debt-ridden future.

As Democrats and Republicans squabble over who deserves credit for the thriving stock market, the sobering reality is that approximately 48 percent of Americans earn under $30,000 a year, co-host Stacy Herbert revealed. A tiny 1.4 percent of the population, on the other hand, earns more than $250,000 a year.

“The pattern of generations living better than their parents is broken,” Max Keiser commented.

Herbert agreed, noting that higher living standards brought about by decades of rapidly-growing debt has created a global fiat “Ponzi scheme.” Older generations who “bought into” the scheme first have benefitted greatly, but it will be their children and grandchildren who will ultimately pay the price for this unsustainable economic model, Herbert added.

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