Optimist Economy

The Consumer Sentiment Index has tracked how Americans experience the U.S. economy through bouts of runaway inflation, a mortgage crisis, stock market bubbles, and six recessions. And yet the scores right now are lower than at any of those moments. After nearly 50 years of tracking by the University of Michigan, Consumer Sentiment has broken through the basement. Beneath the five index questions are some clues as to why: Since 2008, the number of people who say the government is doing a poor job has grown from about a third to about three-quarters. This dissatisfaction has been a slow burn — and it’s also evidence that Americans are ready for bold, non-incremental economic change.

0:00 — Opening
6:25 — Retcon: Vacation Days & Moral Hazard in Healthcare
11:18 — Terms & Conditions: Likert Scale
14:24 — The Big Pilcrow: What’s Consumer Sentiment Telling Us?
17:20 — Record Lows: Sentiment Breaks From the Other Economic Metrics
20:54 — The Five Index Questions: Take Consumer Sentiment Survey Yourself!
26:55 — How’s the Government Doing Managing the Economy? Survey says…Poor
29:39 — It's the Economy, Stupid
31:16 — Partisanship Cancels Itself Out
33:11 — Why This Isn't the Same as What Happened to Biden
35:25 — Who Does Feel Good?
36:07 — Low Sentiment Deserves Big Policy
38:07 — Executive Orders: Hold the reservation. Too many eggs. 
41:52 — Spiritual Sponsors: So, so many
47:17 — Credits

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(Originally aired June 10, 2025) The national debt is $36 trillion. That could be a panic-inducing big number. So maybe it will help to understand how we ran up that debt. We've blown 37% of it on tax cuts, with precious little to show for that. But 28% went to stabilize the economy during two major crises (in ‘08-’09 and during the COVID pandemic), which is when you do want the federal government to pull out its credit card. Good news is we don’t have to get the debt to zero. We just need to get it moving in that direction. And for listeners waiting for MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) to make a cameo, that moment has arrived. 
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Read more:

From Riches to Rags: Causes of Fiscal Deterioration Since 2001 [Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, 2024]

Economic Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act [Congressional Research Service, 2025]

Is Modern Monetary Theory Nutty or Essential? [The Economist, 2019]
Is This What Winning Looks Like?: Modern Monetary Theory, the buzziest economic idea in decades, got a pandemic tryout of sorts. Now inflation is testing its limits. [New York Times, 2022]

Optimist Economy is on break this month, but we know that optimist listeners are interested in tales of economic history, issues of inequality and movements for change. So we thought some of you might enjoy "Occupy!" a six-part narrative series about  Occupy Wall Street, the 2011 protest village that lasted nearly two months and turned a spotlight on systemic economic inequality in the U.S.
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EPISODE 1: An Invitation
In 2011, a handful of skeptical New Yorkers answer a call to Occupy Wall Street. What they find feels less like a protest and more like a glimpse of a different world—one where people openly share stories of debt, hardship, and frustration. They start to build an anti-capitalist village in a tiny Manhattan park — under the watchful eyes of police. This is the first episode of Future Hindsight’s brand new 6-part series, OCCUPY! An Unfinished Uprising. Subscribe to Future Hindsight wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss a single episode!
Want to dive deeper? Listen to these episodes of Future Hindsight:

For a conversation on activism with a co-founder of Occupy Wall Street, tune in to this episode with Micah White: https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/episode/micah-white

For a recap of how American capitalism evolved into what it is today, listen to this episode with Kurt Andersen: https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/episode/americas-evil-geniuses-kurt-andersen

On solidarity and mutual aid, listen to this conversation with Manuel Pastor: https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/episode/solidarity-and-mutuality-manuel-pastor

Credits:

Host / Executive Producer: Mila Atmos

Producer / Writer: Maria Luisa Tucker

Audio Producer: Zack Travis

Additional production help: Mia Warren, Erika Gjada, Megan Detrie, Lizzie Jacobs, and Ilya Magazanin

Archival research: Marisa Holmes

Archival material courtesy of: Occupy Wall Street Media Working Group.

Original music: Rude Mechanical Orchestra and Puge Ruhe

Special thanks to T.J. Raphael, Lauren Passell, Arielle Nissenblatt, and Kate Blumenfeld for being our first listeners and sounding boards, and to Tom Koenig for his support. 
Distributed by PRX.

Nearly 90% of private-sector workers get paid vacation days from their job, but a Pew survey found 46% leave at least some of it on the table. Government survey data also show that the share of workers who are on vacation in any given week has fall by about half between 1980 and 2022. Blame thin staffing, guilt culture, and “PTO bundles” that push people to ration days between vacation days and sick leave. The fix exists elsewhere: the European Union, for instance, guarantees 20 paid days a year. If a Costco cashier is able to vacation in Europe twice, so should you.

Chapters:
0:52 Announcements
2:53 Retcon Marathon
11:01 Terms & Conditions: Statutory Leave
12:04 Big Pilcrow: Vacation Days
14:03 Why Do We Think We Can't Take Time Off?
16:01 No Staffing Slack in the Office
16:51 Vacation Guilt is a Real Thing
18:51 What's Worker Power Got to Do With It?
20:20 Decline in Days Off: What the Data Says
21:17 Vague Numbers of Vacation Days
24:23 Cost of Travel is Up
24:56 Statutory Leave Could Create Jobs
26:28 What are Workers Leaving on the Table?
28:48 How Much Does Vacation Time Cost Employers?
31:08 Vacation Marxist Economics-Style
34:40 The Curse of the Long-Weekend Vacation
38:21 Could the Government Mandate Vacation Time?
42:46 Executive Orders: ACFC wins and Americans with Children Act
46:23 Spiritual Sponsors: Lizards!

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Got economic questions, concerns, or executive orders?  Send them to optimist.economy@gmail.com

About 18% of U.S. GDP every year gets spent on health care. Half of that, 9%, is coming from the government, which is about the whole cost of  other countries’ public health programs. In other words, for what the U.S. spends on Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, VA benefits, and the tax write-off for employer-sponsored plans, we could have free basic health insurance for everyone. This is why the co-authors of the 2023 book “We’ve Got You Covered” describe the current health insurance system as a total tear-down. We could have universal insurance coverage for all with no tax hike if we started building from the ground up.

Chapters:
0:00 Announcements 
0:58 Retcon — Costco cashier's $33/hr job and career security
2:49 Terms & Conditions — Political economy, Cost Sharing, Gatekeeping
7:45 The Big Pilcrow: “Americare… Just Enough” 
8:08 Healthcare vs. health insurance — why this is really an insurance/payer fight
12:53 We have 5+ public health programs already
17:07 Health economist Amy Finkelstein's research: "It's a tear-down, not a fixer-upper"
19:55 The proposed system — universal basic coverage + letting “rich people rich" without letting them opt out
28:11What Americans would love or hate
40:44 This health world changed a lot since Obamacare
43:20 Executive Orders — Airport boarding pass warnings, living-roof bus stops
45:20 Spiritual Sponsors — Resurrection fern, Aunt Fern
46:42 Credits

Donate to Optimist Economy: https://optimisteconomy.com

Video-curious? Watch the Optimist Economy YouTube channel⁠⁠. We’re also on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy or TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy. 

Chat with other Optimists on Substack.

Find utility with our merch: https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy

Got economic questions, concerns, or executive orders?  Send them to optimist.economy@gmail.com