Interview: Is The Economy Really Doing Better

In a recent interview with my friend Tom Zizka at Fox26 News, we discussed the recent election and the view by voters that the economy may not be as strong as statistical headlines suggest. During the interview Tom references a post I wrote discussing these divergences between the data and voter sentiment.

“The dichotomy between the statistical economic data released by various governmental and private agencies continues to be quite wide. For example, the BLS reports the unemployment rate to be just 5.9% suggesting the economy is running near “full-employment.” But that point obscures the fact that roughly 45% of individuals between the working age of 16-54 are no longer counted as part of the work force.”

“American voters have come to realize that ‘hope and change’ is not coming. While statistical economic data suggests that the economy is rapidly healing, it has only been so for a very small percentage of the players. For most American’s they have only watched the “rich” prosper as the Federal Reserve put Wall Street before Main Street. Despite the many promises from the current Administration that help was on the way, it never arrived. Their vote was a clear and simple message – ‘the economy sucks, fix it.'”

Interview covers a wide range of topics from the economy and unemployment, to the impact from the decline in oil prices to the risks of stock markets at record highs.