Media manipulates economic gloom and its all about the midterms

It is the best of economies, it is the worst of economies. But which?It really is a tale of two economies, depending on who you ask.On the one hand, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the US economy has entered an “acceleration phase”: Despite rising interest rates, the markets aren’t tanking as many experts predicted.On the other, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries railed just days before that President Donald Trump has delivered a “Rotten Age,” with an economy that’s “failing everyday Americans” — and Americans seem to agree, with 63% disapproving of Trump’s economic policies, per the RealClear Politics polling average.By the numbers, Bessent has a strong case.US jobless claims tumbled last week to levels not seen in years, retail sales are up and manufacturing is booming.Importantly, the workforce participation rate is climbing — so the low unemployment numbers aren’t just the result of people giving up on the job search altogether.As columnist Daniel McCarthy notes, “Establishment economists predicted none of this.”Well, they’re usually wrong, it seems. Trump’s combination of lighter regulation, tighter restrictions on illegal immigration and protectionist tariffs is translating into more jobs here at home as businesses expand.New industries, like the private space race led by SpaceX and Starlink, are employing hundreds of thousands and still growing. And the massive AI buildout, despite political opposition, is creating jobs for electricians, construction workers and the like all over America. Good jobs at good wages, as a famous Democrat once said.So there’s a lot of economic good news out there.But it’s not all rosy: The “learn to code” advice of the last decade turned out to be awful, with unemployment spreading among computer-science majors as more and more jobs, especially entry-level ones, are taken over by AI. (That’s happening nationwide, not just in Silicon Valley: My neighbors here in e...