Hey, it's Scott Detrow.

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You can join right now at plus.npr.org. That is plus.npr.org. Thanks. Let's get to today's story. Despite the recent political dysfunction

in Washington, the U.S. economy is ending this year on a high note. Inflation is down, real wages

are up. New figures released last week showed that GDP grew at an annual rate of more than 3% in the late summer and early fall.

The Economist magazine is called the United States Performance,

quote, the envy of the world and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell

says he hears regularly from foreign counterparts who wish their own countries were doing this well.

The U.S. economy has just been remarkable.

When we've, in these international meetings that I attend, this has been the story, how well the U.S. is doing.

If you look around the world, there's just a lot of slow growth and continues struggle with inflation.

But even as the U.S. is outperforming most other countries, many Americans remain

frustrated by the high cost of living.

Two-thirds of the people who responded to an Associated Press survey this month

described the U.S. economy as poor.

...