What the Economy Really Looks Like – David Dayen/American Prospect

“When you factor in all the data points, we have an anxious workforce, a business sector seeking opportunity in inflation, and an avalanche of bad policy bearing down on everyone.”

“We’re seeing a resumption of the “K-shaped” economy, where total spending is buttressed by the top income brackets, while everyone else sinks. Half of all consumer spending is coming from the top 10 percent, and these price-insensitive customers are absorbing higher inflation. Low-income consumers, by contrast, are taking on more credit card debt, the Boston Federal Reserve reports, because they cannot keep up with rising prices. More than three-quarters of all consumers do not expect to spend their usual amount in the next year, a sentiment consistent with a high-inflation economy…”

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