Bye, bye Miss American Pie: US inequality and consumer angst

The US Government shutdown alone could shave 0.2 percent from real GDP growth per week and efforts by the Administration to freeze spending could up those costs, writes KPMG US Chief Economist Diane Swonk.

Don McLean's hit "American Pie" was an anthem for the social and economic turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s. The first time I heard its iconic chorus, it captured the longing for a time when the world felt less divided. It seemed to encapsulate an unease about the future that my parents expressed at the dinner table. I came of age in the industrial Midwest as layoffs mounted and factories rusted. I watched the middle class shrink as the heartland became the "Rust Belt". Some inequality is...

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Authors: Diane Swonk

Published Date: 13 October 2025