For the past few years, there’s been a persistent and mystifying disconnect in the economy: the data show that the economy is doing great, but Americans have never been more bummed about it than they have been this year. This is showing up in weird ways: Usually when we feel bad or anxious about the economy we’ll spend less. But we just aren’t. What gives? To help us solve this macro mystery that’s been befuddling economists, we brought in an expert in the micro: Oyin Adedoyin, a personal finance reporter with The Wall Street Journal. She is out in the world talking with people about their finances, their hopes, and their economic stresses. Taken together, the stories she’s covered paint a nuanced and complex picture of our economic health. Based on that reporting, we sat down to try out some theories to explain this disconnect.

Further reading:

WSJ: They’re in Their 60s and Their Student Loans Won’t Let Them Retire by Oyin Adedoyin

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System via FRED: Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking: adults with 3 months emergency savings

University of Michigan: Survey of Consumers, survey questions

Bank of America Institute: Consumer Checkpoint: Strength in numbers

Foreign Policy: No One Has a Plan for American Decline by Nick Danforth

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Adriana Robertson is a law professor at the University of Chicago who, a decade ago, got fixated on index funds. They seemed so important – the best, or maybe only, good investing advice was to put your money in an index fund, right? So, she wondered, what exactly is an index fund? How does one get made? She poked around and couldn’t find research that answered her questions. So unfortunately she had to do it herself. And what she found was that these “passive” investing vehicles aren’t really passive at all. At the end of the day, somebody has to pick the stocks. She joins us to tell us what index funds – and for that matter, capital markets in general – are supposed to be doing, and if they are actually doing it.

Further Reading:

Adriana Z. Robertson - Passive in Name Only: Delegated Management and “Index” Investing

Harry Markowitz - Portfolio Selection

Lucian A. Bebchuk - The Case for Increasing Shareholder Power

Yueran Ma - What Adam Smith Didn’t Foresee About Capitalism

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When we go to buy something – online, on our phones, in person, doesn't matter – there’s an entire invisible infrastructure behind whatever price we see. Companies have dedicated data scientists who use our zip codes, computer type, browsing history, cursor movements, SO much information, to determine how much they can charge us, how much we are willing to pay. On the consumer side, basically nobody likes it. So how did it get to this, and what can we do about it? In part it’s because our technological capabilities have advanced at a faster rate than our social structures, rules and laws. Stephanie Nguyen was Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission from 2021 to 2025, where she worked on cases against companies who were surveillance-pricing us unfairly. She unpacks how companies are spying on us, when that crosses a line, and what changes we’re starting to see as consumers fight back.

Further Reading:

Surveillance Prices. Hidden Fees. Shifting Costs. This Madness Must Stop. - The New York Times

"The Loyalty Trap: How Loyalty Programs Hook Us with Deals, Hack our Brains, and Hike Our Prices" by Samuel A.A. Levine and Stephanie T. Nguyen

“The Degradation of Prices: Platform Power, the Erosion of Price Comparison, and Rebuilding Comparison Shopping in the Digital Economy” by Stephanie T. Nguyen & Shaoul Sussman

FTC’s complaint in its case against Amazon

Maybe There Was an Egg Cartel After All - Politico (on price collusion)

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