". . . Good journalism ought to be honest, and I’ve honestly struggled to figure out what’s been going on with the U.S. economy. But under the theory that good journalism ought to also be descriptive even at the risk of being wrong, I think I owe readers, and myself, a general theory of weirdness.
So here’s my best shot at summarizing the past three years of perplexity: We’re living in a yo-yo economy.
The Economy Is Still Very, Very Weird
It’s the most important economic lesson of the decade: What goes up must come down (and what’s gone down will probably go up again).
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So, maybe I should start with an apology. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, my economic analysis has devolved into what I imagine must be a frustrating theme for readers: Everything is just weird, okay?
I said the rental market was being weird. I said home sales were being weird. I said consumers were being weird too. At one point, I threw up my hands and cried uncle by saying we live in the “everything-is-weird economy,” hoping to save myself some time. Then calls for a recession came pouring from the heavens, and I was forced to say those were weird too.
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