decoupling of top-line economic indicators such as stock market growth, unemployment rate and GDP from the real economy that most Americans experience day-to-day. In this current paradigm, it doesn’t serve politicians particularly well to cite top-line economic numbers when they are so thoroughly disconnected from the everyday lives of their constituents. As both the Biden and Trump administrations have found out, citing impressive top-line economic numbers has the dual effect of both inoculating those in power from real economic despair as well as further alienating and angering everyday people, who often feel like those who control the economy live in an alternate reality. Given this current dynamic and the current administration’s open attempts to suppress economic information, genuine questions arise about how the economy is evaluated on a fundamental level. If top-line economic indicators aren’t particularly useful to the vast majority of people, then perhaps they should be discussed differently from everyday economic indicators. For instance, in baseball, wins were long the main stat used to evaluate starting pitchers. However, over time, evaluators realized that wins can often be a team-dependent statistic for a starting pitcher. As a result, baseball organizations now use a variety of more in-depth statistics, including walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) and strikeouts per 9 innings, to give a more accurate evaluation of a starting pitcher’s performance. Perhaps a similar approach should be taken with the economy. Top-line economic statistics can certainly still be used, but should be supplemented with far more in-depth economic indicators. At a time when there are more questions than ever about the fundamentals of the economy, suppressing or altering economic data is the absolute last approach that should be taken. In fact, this is the time to have an incredibly serious, sober look at how to make the economy work for more Americans. An economy’s true test is not how it functions for the wealthiest among us, but how it functions for more economically precarious people. And, in that regard, the U.S. economy is failing. In recent weeks, there has been a spate of concerning, lesser-publicized news stories that highlight how unmanageable basic costs and necessities are becoming for the majority of Americans. In late December, Redfin released a report indicating that, “There were an estimated 37.2% more home sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market in November 2025 (or 529,770 more, in numerical terms) — the largest gap in records dating back to 2013 aside from this summer. That’s up from 35.6% a month earlier and 17% a year earlier. The gap has been hovering above 35% since April.” The report further details, “We define a market where there are over 10% more sellers than buyers as a buyer’s market and a market where there are over 10% fewer sellers than buyers as a seller’s market. A market where the gap is plus or minus 10% is considered a balanced market. By this definition, it has been a buyer’s market since May 2024. When sellers outnumber buyers, buyers typically hold the negotiating power because they have a lot of options to choose from. That’s why a market with a lot more sellers than buyers is considered a buyer’s market. Of course, it’s only a buyer’s market for those who can afford to buy — many Americans have been priced out of the housing market as affordability has eroded.” Also, according to the New York Federal Reserve, outstanding credit card balances jumped to $1.23 trillion in the third quarter, up 6% over the same time last year and an all-time high. And this data was released prior to the Christmas season, when the majority of Americans incur more debt during their holiday shopping and other activities. Typically, people use the new year to pay some of their debt down, but with rising consumer costs in practically every sector, many people don’t have time to do that. Then follows the inevitable cycle of deepening credit card debt, which is now being exacerbated by buy now, pay later programs used by many consumers. Chi Chi Wu, attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, said the rise of buy now, pay later lending adds extra risk. “We see consumers sometimes get into trouble when they think, ‘Oh, well I can deal with this payment for this one buy now, pay later loan to buy this item,’” she said. “Next thing they know, they’re juggling multiple ‘pay-in-four’ installment plans for their whole shopping list and their plane ticket home.” Numbers like these illustrate that we don’t have a balanced economy nor a particularly multi-dimensional economy. We have an economy that succeeds in getting a small group of people obscenely wealthy, leading to cascading social and political problems. We don’t have an economy that makes basic necessities affordable, that respects or rewards labor commensurate to its value, or is manageable for the vast majority of the population. Factors like soaring medical and credit card debt, plummeting homeownership rates and rising homelessness indicate an economy that doesn’t have its fundamentals taken care of nor its priorities in line. Hiding and falsifying economic data out in the open is the final admission by those in power that they don’t have anything encouraging to show you outside of their usual tricks, so please stop asking. 16
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