A Tale of Two Economies: The ‘Vibecession’ of the Past 4 Years

The GDP has expanded, the labor market has added millions of new jobs, and inflation has eased from its 2022 peak. Why have households been down?
A Tale of Two Economies: The ‘Vibecession’ of the Past 4 Years
A person walks down a street with shopping bags in New York on Nov. 29, 2024. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Andrew Moran
Updated:
0:00

Economists have described the past four years as the “vibecession,” a disconnect between Americans’ feelings about the economy and the data.

It was the consensus view on Wall Street that the economy would slide into a recession, but economic conditions have defied expectations. Gross domestic product (GDP) has expanded at a solid pace, the labor market has added millions of new jobs, and the inflation growth rate has eased from its June 2022 peak.

Andrew Moran
Andrew Moran
Author
Andrew Moran has been writing about business, economics, and finance for more than a decade. He is the author of "The War on Cash."