An Economy That’s Booming and Slowing at the Same Time

An Economy That’s Booming and Slowing at the Same Time

From The Personal Wealth Coach by Jacob A. McClure, CIMA®, of The Personal Wealth Coach, an Independent Fiduciary Investment Advisory Firm | Fee-Only

May 9, 2026 · 47 min · Season 26 · Episode 37

About this episode

Jake McClure discusses the complexities of the current economy, highlighting contradictions in various markets and consumer behaviors.

Is the economy booming, breaking, or just behaving badly? In this episode, Jake McClure makes the case that the answer is yes to all of the above. He walks through a housing market where prices are falling even as sales pick up, explains why high interest rates are doing more than just scaring off buyers, and digs into the strange reality of a commercial real estate slump happening alongside a full‑blown construction surge in data centers, factories, and power infrastructure. Along the way, the conversation connects the dots between AI’s growing appetite for chips, rising costs for everything from computers to chicken sandwiches, and what a shrinking labor pool means for wages, automation, and productivity. You will also hear how consumer behavior is shifting, from McDonald’s struggling to win back value‑focused customers to appliance sales quietly signaling weakness in housing. If that is not enough contradiction for one hour, the episode also dives into the stock market’s resilience in the face of gloomy headlines, what is really driving corporate earnings, and why negative sentiment can sometimes be a positive sign. On the policy side, Jake breaks down the latest tariff…

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