Source: Cobden Centre
by Michael Matulef
“Open the financial pages and a strange creature stares back at you. The S&P 500 has climbed over 90 percent in three years. The top 10 percent of earners now account for nearly half of all consumer spending. Moody’s, Morgan Stanley, and the New York Fed agree on the shape of the thing: the economy has split in two. Asset-holders ride the upper arm of the ‘K’ upward while wage earners slide down the lower one, watching groceries, rent, and insurance devour paychecks that no longer stretch. The commentators have responded the way they respond to everything: with a label. Call it ‘K-shaped’ often enough in the news and the naming starts to feel like an explanation. It is not. … The label tells us what is happening. It tells us nothing about why.” (09/22/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/09/the-k-shaped-economy-is-not-in-your-imagination/