The most important issue for Americans is the economy. When asked, in a poll by YouGov for The Economist, to pick from a list of a dozen problems facing the nation, over a third of people said that the state of the economy or inflation is their top concern. Republicans have a clear lead on the issue and so they ought to do well in the midterms. Except it's more complicated than that: most people don't have an accurate picture of how the economy is doing, and partisanship fills the gap.

The Economist’s Simon Rabinovitch takes the temperature of the US economy. We go back to a time when a state bucked the national economic trend. And The Economist’s Elliott Morris explains how politics influences Americans’ assessment of their financial health. 

John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon. 

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