New York
CNN
—
The US economy is giving off weird vibes right now.
There are millions of job openings and the unemployment rate is low. In fact, it hasn’t been this low for such a long stretch of time in decades. You’d think that would mean the economy is coasting, since periods of low unemployment are generally associated with higher rates of economic prosperity.
But there’s a slew of red flags right now — like a large and growing share of people, particularly Gen Zers, taking on such high levels of credit card debt to cover their spending that lenders have stopped loaning more money to them.
That seems to be the case with a lot of recent economic data: No piece of good news comes without other evidence that give economists pause. “I wouldn’t give the economy a clean bill of health,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY. “It looks robust, but there are pockets of concern.”
But while the state of the economy has economists weighing their words, presidential candidates see it in more binary terms. For instance, President Joe Biden tells voters the economy is booming and has hardly ever been doing better — even though, as he frequently says, there’s still work to be…
