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b'There\\u2019s something weird happening with the economy. On a personal level, most Americans say they\\u2019re doing pretty well right now. And according to the data, that\\u2019s true. Wages have gone up faster than inflation. Unemployment is low, the stock market is generally up so far this year, and people are buying more stuff.\\n\\nAnd yet in surveys, people keep saying the economy is bad. A recent Harris poll for The Guardian found that around half of Americans think the S. & P. 500 is down this year, and that unemployment is at a 50-year high. Fifty-six percent think we\\u2019re in a recession.\\n\\nThere are many theories about why this gap exists. Maybe political polarization is warping how people see the economy or it\\u2019s a failure of President Biden\\u2019s messaging, or there\\u2019s just something uniquely painful about inflation. And while there\\u2019s truth in all of these, it felt like a piece of the story was missing.\\n\\nAnd for me, that missing piece was an article I read right before the pandemic. An Atlantic story from February 2020 called \\u201cThe Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America.\\u201d It described how some of Americans\\u2019 biggest-ticket expenses \\u2014 housing, health care, higher education and child care \\u2014 which were already pricey, had been getting steadily pricier for decades.\\n\\nAt the time, prices weren\\u2019t the big topic in the economy; the focus was more on jobs and wages. So it was easier for this trend to slip notice, like a frog boiling in water, quietly, putting more and more strain on American budgets. But today, after years of high inflation, prices are the biggest topic in the economy. And I think that explains the anger people feel: They\\u2019re noticing the price of things all the time, and getting hammered with the reality of how expensive these things have become.\\n\\nThe author of that Atlantic piece is Annie Lowrey. She\\u2019s an economics reporter, the author of Give People Money, and also my wife. In this conversation, we discuss how the affordability crisis has collided with our post-pandemic inflationary world, the forces that shape our economic perceptions, why people keep spending as if prices aren\\u2019t a strain and what this might mean for the presidential election.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n\\u201cIt Will Never Be a Good Time to Buy a House\\u201d by Annie Lowrey\\n\\nBook Recommendations:\\n\\nFranchise by Marcia Chatelain\\n\\nA Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel\\n\\nNickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\nThis episode of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show\\u2019s production team also includes Annie Galvin, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.'