I guess the question is “who are the markets doing well for?”. If you own equity, financial assets like homes, you’re probably doing pretty good. If you’re a bartender renting in your city, a grocery store worker, bus driver, parks worker, etc things can be not so great.
Another commenter in this thread pointed out starting wages have been at an all time high. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough to live comfortably. In my City you’d need to make a salary of about 165,000 in order to be able to theoretically afford the median home here. The two largest employers here have very few positions that pay in that range (mostly leadership roles or administrative) whereas most are 15-25/hr range.
So yes the economy is doing great if you’re rich. Never been better. It is in the best interests for news organizations right now to talk about how amazing it is doing in order to help suppress panic and keep afloat spending from the general populace. If the non-rich feel things are tightening (they are, just ask them) and they decide to stop spending that is bad.
Also keep in mind there is an election this year and a healthy economy as reported can equal votes.
You have to understand why though. Just saying it like this lack perspective. If you earned 100k, spent 100k in 2020, and now earn 110k, spend 60k a year, your wage growth over 3 year is 10%,while inflation was 20% (basically my situation). Your saving rate is lower than it used to be (45% vs 50%), but you're fine.
If you earned 30k, and spent 25k in 2020, and in 2023 earn 35k and spend 30k, the situation is worse, despite a superior wage inflation (16% over 3 year instead of 10%, for a cost of living inflation of 20% in both case).
And I'm not going into the case of people who don't make enough to save even 5k a year, for them, if the wage increases do not match the cost of living inflation, they have to downsize, and sometimes live in their cars for a while (those are often renters and inflation is worse for renters). Most of the invisible homeless in big cities are in that kind of situation.
You have to pay people enough for them to be able to go to work, so of course the wage inflation for lower salaries has to match the inflation for renters.
Another commenter in this thread pointed out starting wages have been at an all time high. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough to live comfortably. In my City you’d need to make a salary of about 165,000 in order to be able to theoretically afford the median home here. The two largest employers here have very few positions that pay in that range (mostly leadership roles or administrative) whereas most are 15-25/hr range.
So yes the economy is doing great if you’re rich. Never been better. It is in the best interests for news organizations right now to talk about how amazing it is doing in order to help suppress panic and keep afloat spending from the general populace. If the non-rich feel things are tightening (they are, just ask them) and they decide to stop spending that is bad.
Also keep in mind there is an election this year and a healthy economy as reported can equal votes.