The gap between the richest and poorest Americans is widening in what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has called a “bifurcated economy,” as the cost of living skyrockets from housing to food prices, but wages for most workers remain stagnant. Basically, high-income individuals are doing well, while lower-income consumers are struggling more and more.

That situation has sparked discussions about whether we’re in a so-called “K-shaped economy.”

A K-shaped economy—coined after the shape of the letter: a horizontal line marked by two lines, one going lower, the other going up—happens when the economy is rolling along, and suddenly loses steam and begins to drop. And then, after a period, the Fed comes in and lowers interest rates to get things going again, professor Peter Ricchiuti at

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