The US economy is running on two tracks, and for most people it's bad news: Wall Street is booming on AI spending while regular Americans get crushed by prices they can't keep up with.

• Consumer sentiment — how good people feel about spending — is near a record low, worse than the 2020 lockdowns and the 2008 crash.
• Official inflation ticked up to 3.4%, but the real number is likely much higher once rising property taxes, home insurance, and repair costs are counted.
• Prices are up sharply over the last seven years — coffee, beef, eggs, gas, and used cars have all jumped far faster than wages.
• The K-shaped economy (rich rising, everyone else sinking) has narrowed to a tiny sliver of elites doing well while most people struggle.
• The government is set to borrow another $734 billion, pushing US debt past $40 trillion, with neither party willing to slow the spending.

The deeper danger: if oil prices spike, inflation and government bond yields could climb together, forcing the US to refinance its huge debt at much higher rates — a spiral that feeds on itself. The dollar's dominance is also slipping as Russia, China, and other BRICS nations move to trade outside it, and US military credibility took a hit from the Iran conflict.

Outlook: Prices and debt keep rising with no political fix in sight, and rising oil or bond yields could tip the strain into a full crisis.