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From KQED.

Thank you. From KQED.

From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.

Every single day when I opened my email recently, there's a news alert waiting for me about the economy. But the problem is that half the time the news is great, tons of jobs, wages rising, the economy cranking,

and half the time it's terrible, a stock market sell-off, falling consumer sentiment, etc. What's going on?

We'll ask the experts to make sense of it for us if they can,

and we'll want to know from you how you decide if the economy is cooking or just cooked.

That's coming up next after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.

The various economic metrics don't seem to add up these days.

Consumer spending's up year over year,

but the country's gross domestic product fell during the first quarter. Home values are higher

than ever in most cities, as just about every Bay Area resident knows. But don't check that 401k balance,

...