Heather Long

You know, we've got this AI boom going on.

A lot of the economists and Wall Street indicators look pretty good.

But on Main Street, a lot of Americans are really feeling squeezed right now.

You know, it's not just the vibes aren't good anymore.

Wage growth is not keeping up with inflation now.

And people are feeling financially pinched.

And that's a hard problem for him to solve.

He's going to just hold rates steady probably for most, if not all of the year.

But it's hard to watch people in a rough time.

I think it's more of the same of the split screen economy that we've both been talking about.

But here's my but.

I think there's going to be more belt tightening as we move throughout the year.

It's just an economic reality that, say, the middle class right now still has some money left from those larger tax refunds, but about half of it's been eaten up now by the

buy the higher gas prices, and that money doesn't last forever.

And by the end of the summer, it'll probably be gone.

And then people have to make hard choices like a lot of moderate income families are having to make right now.

So I think you get a little bit of pullback.

And frankly, all those companies can't spend on AI forever.

They're also going to have to do some belt tightening in 2027.

Companies are spending so much money investing in AI and the latest technology that there simply isn't a lot of money left to hire.