The elitism of this view aside, it is true that traditional economic indicators are pretty good and that, at the same time, people aren't feeling good about the economy.

Center-left economists have been locked in a debate over whether people are lying to pollsters about experiencing hardship in what is actually an excellent economy or are struggling due to mysterious noneconomic factors.

Others, like Paul Krugman, have decided to blame Donald Trump and his supporters—framing the widespread economic pessimism as a MAGA ploy to win back the White House—a theory Jonathan Newman showed is disproven by the very data Krugman cites.

So, what's really going on here? Daniel Lacalle laid the truth out well in his recent appearance on Radio Rothbard. In short, the government is making the economy look a lot better than it is.

Those who argue the economy is doing great usually cite economic growth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) and various measures of the employment rate. And while on the surface it seems to make sense to use these indicators to get an idea of how the economy is faring overall, there's one big problem. None make any serious distinction between private economic activity and government spending.