What strategies can be implemented to strengthen the U.S. economy in the face of future challenges?
The U.S. economy was beaten and battered in 2025, and powered ahead despite it all. The big picture: The question for 2026 is whether the underlying sources of weakness that are already evident will broaden out into something that threatens to undermine its overall resilience. Threat level: Beneath buoyant growth in GDP and asset prices are serious worries. The labor market is looking softer by the month.Elevated inflation is pinching family budgets. And fears are rising that the AI-fueled boom could leave ordinary workers worse off. The big picture: Those pain points have already caused public opinion on the economy to turn sharply negative. At the same time, one lesson of 2025 is that the U.S. economy is awfully adaptable and can withstand more challenges than you might expect. Zoom in: In April, President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs sent the stock market swooning and economists upgrading their recession odds. It wasn't the only sign of trouble. Job growth came to a near-halt over the summer. Deportations and restrictionist immigration are part of the story, along with the aging of the native-born workforce. But part of it is that companies are trying to get leaner.Inflation, meanwhile, has become the fire that will not be fully doused. While the sky-high inflation of 2022 is a thing of the past, inflation has been above the Federal Reserve's target 2% target every single month since March 2021. Affordability is top of mind in public opinion. Reality check: It's important to remember, though, that the $30 trillion U.S. economy, for all its flaws, can weather a lot, at least at the macro level. It is, as RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas puts it, a "dynamic and resilient beast."