The stock market is setting record highs; only twice since the 1960s has unemployment ended the year lower than May's 4.5% rate; the economy continues to grow; personal income continues to grow; inflation is tame at 2.7% over the last 12 months, but only one-third of Americans rate the economy as "good" and 70% think it getting worse, according to Gallup.(links in original omitted)Well for one thing, I have never seen a press report that puts all of those good news points in one place.
But there is a larger reason--despite all that good news, the fact remains that most of those measurements don't impact most American's daily lives. A person only cares about unemployment when they are unemployed. Unless you are an investor, the stock market does not mean anything to you, inflation is inflation and still most people don't understand why that matters.
What people see are gas prices (which are high but not as high as they used to be), their energy costs in general, food prices, the cost of day to day living. All of these "kitchen table" issues may not be great big indicators of the economy as a whole, but it is the micro level that people are pessimistic about. Marco issues are nice, but theoretical.
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