The gap between a booming stock market and a squeezed public is widening, which is bad for regular workers and a growing political problem for Trump.

• The stock market is up strongly this year, but most of the gains flow to the rich who own stocks, leaving everyone else behind — a "K-shaped" economy.
• People say their own finances are okay but think the wider economy is bad, weighed down by high gas prices and fears that AI will take jobs, power, and water.
• Wages are falling behind inflation for a fourth straight month, job growth has stalled, and the workforce shrank by over a million people in a year.
• Debt is piling up — trillions in car loans, credit cards, and student loans — so younger people are stuck making payments instead of building wealth.
• Company debt is flashing warning signs too, with default rates on private loans hitting recent highs despite upbeat public talk.

Outlook: With cost-of-living anger rising into the midterms, Republicans are losing their edge on the economy, and markets look shaky as oil climbs and the Iran standoff over the Strait of Hormuz continues.