Oil prices have eased since the U.S.–Iran ceasefire, but remain above pre-war levels. At 4.2%, inflation is at its highest level since 2023. The federal debt has now grown larger than national income, while Social Security's trustees warn of insolvency within seven years. At the same time, the S&P has risen 17% since March. Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Times, Larry Edelman of The Boston Globe, Scott Horsley of NPR, and Claire Jones of the Financial Times join EconoFact Chats to make sense of these crosscurrents, discussing whether the affordability squeeze will ease, how the new Fed chair could steer interest rates, whether 'bond market vigilantes' could check fiscal and monetary indiscipline, and what it would take to rein in housing costs.