The US economy is looking good. A “soft landing” — getting last year’s skyrocketing inflation under control without a recession — appears increasingly plausible. All of its structural inequities largely persist, of course, but wages are strong, unemployment is low, and the economy is still growing. The Federal Reserve is no longer projecting the US will enter a recession in the near term. It’s worth remembering just how unlikely this all seemed a year ago. As the Federal Reserve started to hike interest rates to try to fight inflation, many commentators regarded some kind of a recession as a fait accompli. After all, ... (full story)