The New York Times gift article: “From a distance, the American economy might appear to be performing well. Growth is solid, unemployment remains near historic lows and stock markets have posted large gains over the last year. But these numbers mask the reality that most Americans see. We dug into the data, conducted surveys and talked to people around the country. Our research shows that even relatively well-off families are struggling with high prices, despite the tax cuts and wage gains that the Trump administration touts. President Trump and Congress are neither investing in long-term solutions nor offering short-term relief. If they paid attention to different indicators of Americans’ financial health, beyond top-line growth and other traditional measures of economic success, they might feel more urgency. So we developed one: a model budget for a family of two parents and two children under 8. We set their annual income at $130,000 — well above the roughly $83,500 national median for all U.S. households, and right in the middle of the income distribution for a family of four. According to our calculations, the math has stopped adding up for this family over the past 18 months. They had a small cushion in 2024. Now they are in the red after covering just the basics, such as housing, an Affordable Care Act marketplace health care plan and day care. The family has over $1,000 less than it did a year and a half ago. Rising costs have more than wiped out any gains from higher wages and recent tax cuts…”