I guess the question is “who are the markets doing well for?”. If you own equity, financial assets like homes, you’re probably doing pretty good. If you’re a bartender renting in your city, a grocery store worker, bus driver, parks worker, etc things can be not so great.

Another commenter in this thread pointed out starting wages have been at an all time high. That might be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough to live comfortably. In my City you’d need to make a salary of about 165,000 in order to be able to theoretically afford the median home here. The two largest employers here have very few positions that pay in that range (mostly leadership roles or administrative) whereas most are 15-25/hr range.

So yes the economy is doing great if you’re rich. Never been better. It is in the best interests for news organizations right now to talk about how amazing it is doing in order to help suppress panic and keep afloat spending from the general populace. If the non-rich feel things are tightening (they are, just ask them) and they decide to stop spending that is bad.

Also keep in mind there is an election this year and a healthy economy as reported can equal votes.