Watching a video of an astronaut talking about looking at the Earth from orbit: "I saw an iridescent biosphere teeming with life. I didn't see the economy." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJGCAWTgbn0

You can absolutely see the the economy from space.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/measuring-quarterly-economic-growth-outer-space
https://www.voanews.com/a/satellites-shed-light-on-dictators-lies-about-economic-growth/6813119.html