The US economy seems to be doing gangbusters lately, largely thanks to incredible booms in the tech sector.

The stock market is booming — the S&P 500 hit 15 record closing highs so far this year, while the Nasdaq Composite boasts 17. The country's GDP is growing better than expected. Microsoft just became the second $4 trillion company in history, just weeks after Nvidia became the first.

But those headline numbers don't seem to be trickling down to normal, working people. In fact, something interesting happens if you take AI away from the economy: you find a country that has been in the throes of stagnation, teetering on the brink of something even worse. By stripping away the effects of gluttonous AI hype, we see that the record-breaking numbers mask a dark storm swirling just below th

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