the inflation the inflation was probably unavoidable. it s hard to see, you know, given all of the disruptions, belingering effects of the pandemic, the only way to have not had inflation would have been to screw up this jobs recovery which would have been a bad deal for everybody. but, you know, so that s the real part. the other thing is there are two kinds of questions that you get in surveys. one is, how is the economy doing and the other is, how are you doing? when you ask people how are you doing, by and large, they say fine. when you ask people about their personal financial situation. yup. you ask them how are they doing compared with the way they with five years ago, those are all looking pretty good. you ask them about the economy, they say it s awful. and of course that s very much along the partisan lines, self-identified republicans say that this is the worst economy, you know, that it s as bad as 2009 when the unemployment rate was insanely high and the economy wa