The pandemic upended many of the things we thought we knew about the economy. Even now, economists struggle to answer such fundamental questions as whether Americans are better off financially. Answers vary significantly depending on the data source, sowing confusion. The end result is that business and households seem to be losing trust in the data and have become increasingly unwilling to participate in the surveys that underlie official statistics such as unemployment and inflation that, in turn, help inform decisions made by government officials and central bankers.
