So this is been a topic of a lot of debate among economists, politicians, and just the everyday person is about why there seems to be this disconnect.

When we had numbers, like right now

the unemployment rate is 3.9%,

and as I said, inflation is in the mid 3%.

When those numbers existed in the 2018, 2019, folks seem to be pretty happy, but now they're not.

And so the question is, why?

You might be familiar with a certain catch-all phrase that seems to be coming in

handy more and more these days. It's the... Thanks Obama. Of the 20-20s.

In this economy? You know, go to your week-long bachelorette

trip in Croatia? In this economy? The economy as a concept has become a

sorted meme of itself and until recently I hadn't given it much thought.

I referenced the economy as casually and carelessly as one might mention the weather,

as though it's a scientific, measurable fact of life

that we all experience when we step outside the comfort of our homes

and into the commercialized third spaces all around us. But I became interested in the

economy and the colloquial sense as one 20-something with a job is want to do when I

noticed it felt like the term's meaning was beginning to splinter from any sort of collective

understanding. The economy is doing great, headlines would reassure while every real person I knew was sweating their grocery bill and crossing all ten toes that their check engine lights didn't blink to life, thereby landing them in their nearest used car dealership facing an 8% interest rate.

Welcome back to the Money with Katie's Show, Rich, Economically Rational Actors.

Today, we are exploring the mismatch between what the data tells us about the economy and what we

experience in our day-to-day reality. I had help from two people today to try to make sense of hashtag this economy.

I'm Judd Kramer. I'm a lecturer in economics at Harvard University.

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