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Things look strong on paper, but many Americans remain unconvinced. We asked economic officials, the woman who coined “vibecession” and Charlamagne Tha God what they think is happening.The U.S. economy has been an enigma over the past few years. The job market is booming, and consumers are still spending, which is usually a sign of optimism. But if you ask Americans, many will tell you that they feel bad about the economy and are unhappy about President Biden’s economic record.Call it the vibecession. Call it a mystery. Blame TikTok, media headlines or the long shadow of the pandemic. The gloom prevails. The University of Michigan consumer confidence index, which looked a little bit sunnier this year after a substantial slowdown in inflation over 2023, has again soured. And while a measure of sentiment produced by the Conference Board improved in May, the survey showed that expectations remained shaky.The negativity could end up mattering in the 2024 presidential election. More than half of registered voters in six battleground states rated the economy as “poor” in a recent poll by The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College. And 14 percent said the political and economic system needed to be torn down entirely.What’s going on here? We asked government officials and prominent analysts from the Federal Reserve, the White House, academia and the internet commentariat about what they think is happening. Here’s a summary of what they said.Kyla Scanlon, coiner of the term ‘Vibecession’Price levels matter, and people are also getting some facts wrong.The most common explanation for why people feel bad about the economy — one that every person interviewed for this article brought up — is simple. Prices jumped a lot when inflation was really rapid in 2021 and 2022. Now they aren’t climbing as quickly, but people are left contending with the reality that rent, cheeseburgers, running shoes and day care all cost more.“Inflation is a pressure cooker,” said Kyla Scanlon, who this week is releasing a book titled “In This Economy?” that explains common economic concepts. “It hurts over time. You had a couple of years of pretty high inflation, and people are really dealing with the aftermath of that.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

This word has appeared in 10 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?exhume ɛkshˈjum verb: 1. disinter or dig up dead bodies for reburial or for medical investigation2. revive, bring back or restore something after a forgotten periodListen to the pronunciation.Powered by Vocabulary.comThe word exhume has appeared in 10 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 14 in the video game review “Hades II’s Eternal Pursuit of a Tantalizing Past” by Yussef Cole:Hades II takes place a number of years beyond the events of the first game. You play as Melinoë, the youngest child of Hades, born sometime during these intervening years and spirited away as an infant just before the titan Chronos invaded the underworld and imprisoned the rest of her family. Chronos comes across as dismissive and haughty, an apt characterization for the father of time.… Melinoë, like us, is an orphan of the past. She has been severed from her family, from a life that could have been one of safety and comfort. She begins the game out in the wilds, far from the place she knows to be home. She barely even remembers it, having left at such a young age. Melinoë is trying to make her way back, trying to return to a past she cannot even picture or recall. Her struggle is to exhume that memory; to fall over and over again in the battle to reclaim her home.Daily Word ChallengeCan you correctly use the word exhume in a sentence?Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.If you want a better idea of how exhume can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column. More

More than a million borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit schools have had billions of dollars in federal student loans eliminated through a government aid program. But people with private loans have generally been excluded from any relief — until recently.Navient, a large owner of private student loan debt, has created, but not publicized, a program that allows borrowers to apply to have their loans forgiven. Some who succeeded have jubilantly shared their stories in chat groups and other forums.“I cried, a lot,” said Danielle Maynard, who recently received notice from Navient that nearly $40,000 in private loans she owed for her studies at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Mass., would be wiped out.Navient, based in Wilmington, Del., has not publicized the discharge program that helped Ms. Maynard. Other borrowers have complained on social media about difficulties getting an application form. When asked about the program and the criticisms, a company spokesman said, “Borrowers may contact us at any time, and our advocates can assist.”So a nonprofit group of lawyers has stepped in ease the process: On Thursday, the Project on Predatory Student Lending, an advocacy group in Boston, published Navient’s application form and an instruction guide for borrowers with private loans who are seeking relief on the grounds that their school lied to them.“We want to level the playing field and let people know, instead of having it be this closely held secret,” said Eileen Connor, the group’s director.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The industry that moves nearly 90 percent of goods within the city is suing to challenge the policy, claiming it unfairly burdens their business.With a month left before drivers start being charged to enter Midtown and downtown Manhattan under New York City’s congestion pricing plan, a new group of challengers is joining a crowded field of critics: truckers.The Trucking Association of New York, a trade group representing a wide range of delivery companies, filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to delay the policy, claiming that it would unfairly charge vans and trucks that enter the new tolling zone as much as $36 per trip during peak hours. That cost, the group says, could soon be passed on to local businesses and consumers.“We’re not pushing back on the overall program,” Kendra Hems, the group’s president, said. “It’s simply the way that trucks are being targeted.” The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan.The congestion pricing plan, scheduled to start June 30, will charge fees to most vehicles entering Manhattan on or below 60th Street. Passenger vehicles entering the zone will be charged up to $15 once a day, with some exceptions. Commercial trucks will be charged $24 or $36 per entry, depending on the size of the vehicle and the time of day.Transit leaders have already built in a 75 percent discount on tolls during off-peak hours, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weekends. But Ms. Hems said that was inadequate, because customers often dictate that deliveries must be made during daytime shifts. The trucking association is seeking lower or less frequent tolls.The program has already raised the ire of critics including the governor of New Jersey, a teachers’ union, the Staten Island borough president and some residents of Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan. With this latest complaint, eight lawsuits challenging the rollout have been filed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Consumers eased up on spending in the face of rising prices and high interest rates, Commerce Department data shows.Economic growth slowed more sharply early this year than initially estimated, as consumers eased up on spending amid rising prices and high interest rates.U.S. gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That was down from 3.4 percent in the final quarter of 2023 and below the 1.6 percent growth rate reported last month in the government’s preliminary first-quarter estimate.The data released on Thursday reflects more complete data than the initial estimate, released just a month after the quarter ended. The government will release another revision next month.The preliminary data fell short of forecasters’ expectations, but economists at the time were largely unconcerned, arguing that the headline G.D.P. figure was skewed by big shifts in business inventories and international trade, components that often swing wildly from one quarter to the next. Measures of underlying demand were significantly stronger.The revised data may be harder to dismiss. Consumer spending rose at a 2 percent annual rate — down from 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter, and 2.5 percent in the preliminary data for the last quarter — and measures of underlying demand were also revised down. An alternative measure of economic growth, based on income rather than spending, cooled to 1.5 percent in the first quarter, from 3.6 percent at the end of 2023.Still, the new data does little to change the bigger picture: The economy has slowed but remains fundamentally sound, buoyed by consumer spending that remains resilient even after the latest revisions. That spending is supported by rising incomes and the result of a strong job market that features low unemployment and rising wages. There is still no sign that the recession that forecasters spent much of last year warning about is imminent.Business investment, a sign of confidence in the economy, was actually revised up modestly in the latest data. Income growth, too, was revised up.Inflation, however, remains stubborn. Consumer prices rose at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, slightly slower than in the preliminary data but still well above the Federal Reserve’s long-run target of 2 percent.In response, policymakers have raised interest rates to their highest level in decades and have said they will keep them there until inflation cools further. The modestly slower growth reflected in Thursday’s data is unlikely to change that approach.The Fed will get a more up-to-date snapshot of the economy on Friday, when the government releases data on inflation, income and spending in April. More

Corrections that appeared in print on Thursday, May 30, 2024.INTERNATIONALAn article on Monday about criticism of plans to turn a waterfront park in Toronto into a spa misstated the location of a garage planned as part of the development. The garage is proposed for the mainland, not on West Island.An article on Wednesday about Pope Francis’ apology for using an offensive slang word to refer to gay men referred incorrectly to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples. The pope permitted priests to bless the couples, not same-sex unions.SCIENCE TIMESAn article on Tuesday about the Lord Howe Island stick insect misstated the year that a San Diego Zoo official picked up stick insect eggs in Melbourne. It was in 2016, not 2015.OBITUARIESAn obituary on Tuesday about the basketball star and broadcaster Bill Walton misstated the impact that repeated injuries had on his playing time as a professional. He never played in more than 65 games in a season during his years with the Portland Trail Blazers as a result of injuries. It was not the case that he never played in more than 70 games as a professional. (He played in 80 games for the Boston Celtics during the 1985-86 season.)Because of an editing error, an obituary on Monday about the songwriter Richard M. Sherman referred incorrectly to the four live-action films, including “Tom Sawyer” and “The Slipper and the Rose,” for which he and his brother, Robert, wrote the screenplays as well as the songs. They were not produced by the Walt Disney Company.Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions.To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email [email protected]. To share feedback, please visit nytimes.com/readerfeedback.Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to [email protected] newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email [email protected]. More

Shh … Royce Ferguson’s puzzle holds secrets.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTHURSDAY PUZZLE — I know some of our readers like to figure out why a given photo was chosen for the top of each column, so if you are curious, it’s because of the headline — the parade is walking through a park. Also, I am currently bingeing the Scottish television show “Outlander,” so bagpipes and kilts are top of mind.Now that we have that settled, let’s talk about Royce Ferguson’s puzzle. Keep your voices down, though. You never know who is listening in.Today’s ThemeWhen you start solving past the early week puzzles, you begin to see the revealer in places where you might not expect it. In Mr. Ferguson’s crossword, the revealer is in the central Down entry, at 7D. The clue reads “‘Shh! People may be listening’ … or a hint to eight squares in this puzzle,” and the answer is THE WALLS HAVE EARS.The WALLS in this grid are the left and right borders of the puzzle, and they certainly do have EARs — eight in total. And yes, they are rebuses, or entries where you need to write more than one letter in a square. If you are just joining us and are not sure how to do that on your device, here is a handy clip-and-save article that will help.Each long Down entry on either side of the grid has two EAR rebuses. For example, the answer to “Routine damage” (1D) is W[EAR] AND T[EAR], and the answer to “Open and honest conversation” (36D) is H[EAR]T TO H[EAR]T. The rebuses also work with the crossing entries: “One paying taxes” (14A) is an [EAR]NER, for example.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

A defendant charged with driving with a suspended license appeared via Zoom while driving. “I don’t know why he would do that,” a perplexed judge said.If one is facing a charge of driving with a suspended license, there are better ways to make one’s case than from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.That self-evident reality was momentarily lost on a Michigan man who did just that earlier this month when he appeared via Zoom for a pre-trial hearing in Washtenaw County District Court, leaving a judge perplexed.“I’m pulling into my doctor’s office actually, so just give me one second I’m parking right now,” the man, Corey Harris, 44, told Judge J. Cedric Simpson as he asked for a moment before beginning the proceeding.The video feed from the May 15 hearing showed Mr. Harris in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, donning glasses and wearing a seatbelt as he turned the wheel, intently scanning his surroundings for a place to park.The judge appeared to be stunned — not by Mr. Harris’s casual tardiness, but rather by the irony of his actions given the charge Mr. Harris was facing.“You stationary?” Judge Simpson asked Mr. Harris, who had been charged in October.“I’m pulling in right at this second,” Mr. Harris said. “Yes I am,” he finally said, triumphantly.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More