The Commerce Department will announce the latest GDP numbers Friday, and they will probably be solid. The economy seems to be growing at an annual rate of about 2%, which is not bad for the 11th year of an expansion.
After the numbers come out, something else will probably happen: Pundits will once again express bafflement about the apparent disconnect between the healthy U.S. economy and the sour national mood.
But there is really no disconnect. The fault — with apologies to Shakespeare — is in our stats, not ourselves.
Americans are dissatisfied, and have been for years, largely because the economy as most people experience it has not been booming.