NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Whalen Wong, joined today by my co-host, Daryan Woods.

Great to be here.

And parachuting in is our producer, Cooper Gatsby Kim.

Oh my gosh, I finally hit ground.

Hello.

Cooper, you have landed at just the right time because it is Indicators of the week.

On today's show, is the American middle class really hollowing art?

One company tries to take batteries to see.

And can anyone get tickets to the LA Olympics?

All of that is after the break.

It's indicators of the week, Darian, you're up first.

My indicator is 31%.

That's the share of American families that are in the upper middle class, according to a definition where the upper middle class is, for a family of three, between $133,000 and $400,000 a year.

This is analysis from the American Enterprise Institute, which is a pro-market think tank.

This has been such a buzzy topic of conversation this week. And I think some people were even

arguing whether $133,000 is even upper middle class these days. Yeah, mileage may vary depending

on where you are in the country. In 1979, only 10% of families

were even reaching that $133,000 threshold adjusted for inflation. Now it's almost a third of families.

So, Darien, how does this square with politicians always talking about the middle class hollowing out?

That is true. There is less of the U.S. middle, middle class. But it's actually good news, because a lot of them are going into the upper middle class or even higher. So true, but not the full story.

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