Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Thursday, August 13. I'm Naila Boodoo.

Here's how we're making you smarter today. Last night, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first public appearance.

Plus, news you can use about voting.

First though, today's one big thing,

the deep financial trouble facing many American families.

We've got a tough reality check for you right now, and I'll warn you, I know this is difficult to hear, but it's the truth about where we are economically as a country.

In the immediate future, we're going to start to see a lot more pain happen.

But you might be surprised to hear that, because there are a lot of headlines that seem good.

People are paying off their credit cards, personal income grew, and total household debt fell for the first time in six years.

Jennifer Kingston is the managing editor of business for Axios.

She says the economic headlines that make it seem like everything is good

are because of congressional help,

whether it was stimulus checks that went to almost every household

or the $600 a week in extra unemployment benefits.

That had the effect of bolstering household incomes and allowing people to pay down

their debt, which meant that the full effects of the recession that started in February

aren't being fully felt.

But all that money has since expired.

And if you think President Trump's executive orders will help,

they might be unconstitutional.

And absent additional intervention, it's going to get worse.

It starts with the moratorium on evictions that expired last month.

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