NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods.

And I'm Whelan Wong.

So Whelan, we've heard a lot about this disconnect between how the U.S. economy is doing

and how people actually feel about it.

This is this critical topic, especially coming

into election year.

We'll certainly be following it closely on the indicator.

That's right.

We've been talking a lot about the vibes right jobs and economic growth have

been high inflation is cooling off but a lot of Americans have been feeling bad

about the economy yeah and a lot of potential reasons. Maybe people are still burnt from when inflation was high.

Or maybe it's the expensive cost of borrowing for a car or a mortgage.

So you're on the case. Are you going to bring us some answers today? Not today. So I'll temper your

expectations but I will go deep into one potential explanation that intrigued me when I was looking into this.

So this recent paper found that the financial media might be part of the problem.

Oh no, that's me, and you, that's us! Me to do. I'm sorry we might be part of this.

I'm both intrigued but also terrified to hear more. Yes, we will have a struggle session looking in the mirror after the break. Ben Harris is the Vice President and Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.

And until last year he was the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury

Department under President Biden. And that's where he started ruminating about the financial

media.

It felt like is almost this race to negativity

and that you could bring up things that are happy in the economy

...