This is planet money from NPR.
When someone says the economy is doing well, what does that even mean?
Like for workers or for employers or an average of the country as a whole?
Is the objective here to tame inflation, or is it to lower unemployment or to have less inequality?
Is it some of these things?
None of these things are a mix of all of the above.
Hello, and welcome to planet money.
I'm Darian woods.
The world of economics is filled with all sorts of measuring sticks.
And over time, all kinds of government agencies and universities and even private companies have come up with different ways to measure slices of the economy.
And we pay attention to these measurements because they go into all kinds of huge decisions, things like government policies, but also personal investments.
So today on the show, were going to lift the curtain on two of these yardsticks.
Were going to meet the people behind the inflation and jobs numbers and see how the ruler gets made.
Our first metric for the economy comes from host Stacey Vanek Smith.
And this ones about inflation.
Big worry of the last few years.
Inflation is just a fancy name for prices going up.
And if prices start going up at a really fast pace, it can signal the beginning of a so called inflationary spiral.
That means prices going up out of control.
So, like, your latte goes from four dollars to ten dollars to fifty dollars.