This is Planet Money from NPR.

Well, that happened.

Happened. Amanda, it is still happening.

And as of midday, Wednesday, when we're recording this,

we still don't know for sure who will be sworn in as president on January 20th.

So instead of fixating on, say, vote counting in Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania,

we want to spend today's show on what we do know about the economy.

With all that has been happening, and it has been a lot,

we may have forgotten that we are still in the midst of an economic catastrophe.

And the next Congress and president have to do something about it.

But figuring out exactly where we are in the economy is harder than it may seem.

The drop in March and April was so quick,

and then the partial recovery was so fast.

The numbers that we do have seem to go out of date really quickly.

Once every three months, we get these advanced numbers about the GDP, the gross domestic product.

That's the sum total of everything we buy and sell.

And that number comes out, and when it comes out, it's just an advanced number,

and then it gets updated a month later.

And then there is all this data.

We only get a glimpse of, like, once every blue moon, consumer spending, housing.

So how does the next Congress, the next president, design a plan to help the economy?

Figure out who to send money to and exactly how much.

...