Americans remain gloomy about the U.S. economy, even as GDP continues to expand and unemployment is at a five-decade low. The disconnect is spurring some policy experts and economists to examine the root causes of the gap and to look beyond the nation’s still-elevated inflation.
By many measures, the U.S. consumer remains in good shape. Most people who want a job have one, while wages are finally outpacing inflation. In 2023, the stock market rebounded from a brutal bear market in the prior year, bolstering the retirement and investment accounts of millions of Americans.
One recent analysis from the Treasury found that Americans in 2023 could not only afford the same goods and services they did in 2019, they have an extra $1,000 on hand to save or spend, because median earnings have increased faster than prices. Yet if you ask Americans about the economy, most give it poor ratings. About 6 in 10 people polled by CBS News said they rated the economy as “fairly bad” or “very bad.”
“There are three plausible explanations — the first is…
