Sometimes there are economic narratives that don’t quite deserve a debunking — they have more than a kernel of truth to them — but rather demand an appropriate level of skepticism. Three such stories are widespread today.
The first is the idea that artificial intelligence is driving a surge in US GDP growth. The second is that AI is weakening the labor market. And the third is that the recent expansion of consumer spending is concentrated at the top. None of these stories is false, exactly, but each is drenched in uncertainty, so we need to be cautious in how we interpret them and precise in what we do and do not know.