I sat down with Lincoln Square’s Susan Demas to dig into the latest economic news — fresh BLS data showing inflation has jumped to 3.8%, meaning wages are no longer keeping pace with rising prices for the first time in three years. The culprits are no mystery to anyone paying attention: a chaotic, legally dubious tariff policy that the administration has repeatedly switched on and off compounded by the decision to bomb Iran and drive up global energy prices. I gave the current economy a “B” — the hard statistics are holding up better than the mood suggests, but the quality of economic policymaking coming out of this White House is, in my view, the worst I’ve seen in my lifetime.
We also got into housing, AI, and why I launched my new Substack, Platypus Economics. On housing, the math is brutal — interest rates are up, construction materials are hit by tariffs, and the immigrant labor that built this industry has been driven away. On AI, I think it’s is the most important disruption of our lifetimes, and the central question isn’t whether the technology is powerful — it is — but who gets to benefit from it. That’s why economic literacy matters so much right now, and it’s exactly why I started Platypus Economics — because everyone deserves the tools to see these forces clearly.
Thank you John Harwood, PJ Schuster, Dana Britt, Cathy Stein, James Woodruff, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lincoln Square! Join me for my next live video in the app.
