Wealth Inequality in America

Here's a great short video with great visuals that demonstrates how out of touch all of us are with the reality of the world we live in (could the mainstream media have anything to do with this?). 

I believe I heard on my local news last night that the economy was recovering nicely; and I think the DOW and NASDAQ are both trending upwards (I don't follow these, however I heard someone talking about it at work...) which I've always viewed as positive for the economy and everyones savings and retirement, however I failed miserably trying to understand basic economics in college; other than supply and demand, the rest just didn't make sense. 

Was my lack of understanding due to ignorance or could this be because the whole thing is manipulated to begin with, and terms and gestures like mortgage backed security, derivative, and quantitative easing are just made up and thrown around to create enough confusion so that people like me actually believe that there is some sort of natural cause and effect relationship that exits between all of this? 

It's easier for me to envision a hand holding strings attached to the money supply, interest rates, inflation, jobs, housing and all the other things we are told make up our economy and effect the markets; these strings are then jerked independently of one another or let go of completely (as in 2008 and as I'm now learning, the great depression as well) to create a scenario that best suits the needs and plans of the 1% in the country, or more accurately the world.  We've all learned recently that the LIBOR was rigged and that everyone (including the federal reserve and Tim Geithner) was aware of it since 2008, if not before.  Why can't everything else be manipulated just as easily to suit someones agenda?

These are just my conclusions based on what I've read and seen... you should make your own conclusions based on your research.  This video is a good place to start to get the investigative juices flowing...  Who are the 1% and how are they so much smarter than the 99% that they end up with all the money?  Again, one must think this is by design and didn't just happen on accident...