Making something seem resilient and successful is very easy in the short term when you have control over what data is coming out of it.

There were companies that were commiting fraud or were straight up ponzi schemes that seemed very successful, all while operating under some oversight from the western governments and the public. Some lasted many years before the facade crumbled and they collapsed.

Now imagine what an entire corrupt government with full control of the reports, the media and no one to answer to, is capable of.

Using resources on a war does stimulate the economy. That’s just the Broken Window Fallacy.