The economy by all measurable metrics is growing strong and seemingly healthy or, as characterized below, is a superstar! You are living in one of the most opportunistic economies that the US has had in decades. I will 100% concede that a cranking US economy doesn’t trickle down to the working class much but instead it makes the rich richer - but that is a structural problem not an economy problem. By all measurable factors, this economy is a superstar. If you want to discuss structural changes, please feel free.... after tipping your hat to American Ingenuity. The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status No, really. If the United States’ economy were an athlete, right now it would be peak LeBron James. If it were a pop star, it would be peak Taylor Swift. Four years ago, the pandemic temporarily brought much of the world economy to a halt. Since then, America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. The growth rate is high, the unemployment rate is at historic lows, household wealth is surging, and wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the working class. There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them. The American public doesn’t feel that way—a dynamic that many people, including me, have recently tried to explain. But if, instead of asking how people feel about the economy, we ask how it’s objectively performing, we get a very different answer. Let’s start with economists’ favorite metric: growth. When an economy is growing, more money is being spent. More stuff is being produced, more services are being performed, more businesses are being started, more workers are being hired—and, because of this abundance, living standards are probably rising. (On the flip side, during a recession—literally, when the economy shrinks—life gets materially worse.) Right now America’s economic-growth rate is the envy of the world. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, U.S. GDP grew by 8.2 percent—nearly twice as fast as Canada’s, three times as fast as the European Union’s, and more than eight times as fast as the United Kingdom’s. Price increases on their own, however, can’t tell us if the cost of living has gone up. What really matters is the relationship between how expensive things are and how much money people have to spend on them. If prices go up but people’s incomes go up faster, then the cost of living decreases. And that is exactly what has happened in the U.S. over the past five years. Why it may not feel like it to you is really the psychology of happiness and how little prices are more important to people than the big things: Why Americans Trust Feelings About the Economy More Than Facts - The Atlantic
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth … 11 Signs That the U.S. Economy Is in Far Worse Shape Than Most People Think - LewRockwell
the first sentence from this link…. “Unless you are living under a bridge or you are eagerly drinking the kool-aid that the mainstream media is dishing out…” another headline from this site…. “Odds Are High You’re Going To Need Your Survival Supplies in the Next Few Years” Why does maga use inaccurate, conspiratorial sites for their info?
What I notice is that the top three countries in the chart have plenty of energy production within their own borders, and the bottom four do not. The time period not only includes Covid, but also the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Germany in particular was highly dependent on oil and gas from Russia, and has had to adjust to doing without this supply. Italy got 40% of its natural gas (used to make electricity) from Russia before the war. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/budapest/20542.pdf
That would come as quite the surprise to Mr. Jordan, his family and friends or is this one of your alternate universe, body double conspiracy thingies?
Michael JACKSON being dead should not be a surprise to anyone T this point… especially to some like Michael JORDAN who likely listened to his music growing up .