Hi, it's Diane, on my mind, the role of the economy in this year's presidential election.

In poll after poll, voters say economic issues top their concerns

when it comes to this year's vote, they worry about inflation, the price of housing,

whether their family can afford the bill at the grocery store.

Americans are going to want to know how each candidate

will help them in their personal situation

and that's going to be possibly

the defining issue of this election.

That's Damien Palletta. He's Washington coverage chief for the Wall Street Journal.

He joins me to take a look at the economic proposals of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Damien for a long time there was this big gap between how people felt about the economy and how the economy was really operating.

Does that gap still exist and how is the economy doing these days?

I would say we call it the disconnect here at the journal.

I would say that disconnect does still exist though it has narrowed a bit.

We see recently that some

consumer survey show that consumer sentiment about the economy has picked up

just in the past few months. People are feeling a little bit better about where their family sits, where their

household sits, what the outlook is for their company, which is a great sign.

Because when people feel better about their own personal situation, they tend to spend spend more money they tend to reinvest in the economy

the last thing you want is this negative feedback loop where people pull back and that hurts other companies

and you know then we see kind of a domino effect so we are starting to see the consumer sentiment

pick up a bit however you know there is still a lot of anxiety in the economy for

sure the economy is still the number one election issue, you know, no matter how much either

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