The economy just doesn’t make sense anymore (VOX)

The economy just doesn’t make sense anymore – By Emily Stewart (VOX) / Dec 2, 2022

How’s the economy doing? Depends where you look. Seriously.

There’s no consistent story to tell about the economy right now. If you look at housing, everything’s a disaster. If you look at consumer spending, everything’s plugging along. If you look at the labor market, things are looking pretty phenomenal.

“There seem to be three different economies out there,” said Ethan Harris, global economist at Bank of America, in an interview. “You’ve got a housing market in recession, you’ve got a consumer who’s hanging in, and then you’ve got a hot labor market.”

The economy has been a bit of a conundrum to unpack for a while now, after the pandemic tossed multiple segments into disarray across the globe. In the United States, there was a quick but deep recession as millions of workers were laid off, businesses were shuttered, and the economy ground to a halt. The subsequent rebound has been unpredictable, to say the least. (Remember the lumber shortage? What about when nobody could find dumbbells?)

The stock market soared throughout much of 2020 and 2021, only to sputter in 2022. Supply chain disruptions have eased, though the system remains far from perfect. Plenty of parts of the economy are quite robust, but everyone feels terrible about it anyway. Even so, many consumers are spending through it.

CONTINUE > https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/12/2/23486024/economy-inflation-jobs-report-gdp-stock-market-recession