As always, it’s about the whole thing. A true economic boom spreads out real gains to the vast majority of the population. There will always be some proportion of people who are left out. But in the good ones, the true upswings, that share is minimal.

This is the big problem right now, especially as GDP has been positive in a lot of places for a long time. It is what confuses people into thinking there has to be a boom. The sad fact is that economic output all over the world, the US included, hasn’t been near enough to minimize the proportion being excluded from these small economic gains. There are still too many people on the wrong side of the economic divide.

In America, though they go along with the media as to how the economy is described they sure aren’t acting consistent with the rhetoric. Spending remains down across-the-board, and those in the most afflicted of areas are swinging back and forth looking for someone to give them answers.

Two years ago, the Rust Belt provocatively delivered Donald Trump the White House based in large part on his observations about the “fake” unemployment rate. Finally, someone in the right position was willing to say what many actually felt and still feel. He’s since embraced that particular statistic as has so many around him. Last night, maybe the President was reminded?

President Donald Trump got a warning sign on Tuesday from the Midwestern and Rust Belt states that handed him the presidency, as voters delivered big victories to Democrats and offered a road map for the crowd of candidates lining up to challenge him in 2020.

There are a whole bunch of acerbic political factors rolled up in this midterm ballot and it’s far too easy and admittedly convenient to distill everything into these broad economic terms. Regardless of complexity, it’s difficult not to appreciate the possibility.

The US economy is not booming enough, therefore it is not booming. And now it faces far more difficult prospects than the low ceiling.