
Archie Hall
3.2K posts

Archie Hall
@ArchieHall
US economics editor for @TheEconomist | Other writing at https://t.co/qPYdNidstF








📽️ From Donald Trump to Britain's wind power trade body, there's a growing coalition calling for more drilling in the North Sea. Raising the question: if we DID encourage more exploration, how much oil & gas could we actually get? Our MEGA primer on the North Sea👇 Ps it's longer than usual, but it turns out this topic has SO MANY misconceptions. Time to put some of them right. Let me know what you think



NOT SO "K" America's "K-shaped" economy has become conventional wisdom—the idea that spending is booming for the rich and slumping for the rest, leaving growth top-heavy and precarious. One problem: as I write in @TheEconomist, it is probably wrong. 🔗: economist.com/finance-and-ec…

Everyone’s talking about the K-shaped economy—the rich pulling away while everyone else stagnates. In our inaugural Stripe Economics post, I take a look at @stripe + macro data, and I see the K on Wall Street, but not yet on Main Street: • The most profitable third of US public companies now account for ~2/3 of total market cap—the highest on record. • The S&P 500 rose 16.5% in 2025, and the top 1% own ~40% of all equities. So unsurprisingly the top 1% wealth share has risen (~2pp) since 2022. • BUT, Stripe data suggest lower-income household spending has been growing faster than high-income households over the last few years. • Wages tell a similar story: real earnings at the 10th percentile grew ~0.5pp slower than the 90th since 2022, but BOTH posted positive real wage growth. • Why? 1) The wealthy hold lots of equities but only account for ~25% of consumer spending. 2) Real wages at the bottom have been supported by continued labor market tightness post-pandemic, though this may cool. Read the full post below and subscribe! stripeeconomics.substack.com/p/k-shaped-eco…













