Measures like GDP, in addition to not measuring the thing that you care about, may not measure the thing that they think they're measuring.

For example, apparently the US GDP grew by 2.55% in 2025 (some things are not fully reported, disclaimers about partial data apply). But this is measured in US dollars. The US dollar is down 11% against the EURO over the same period. It's down almost 9% against the British Pound. Down over 4% against the Canadian dollar. It's down over 4% against the Chinese Yuan, a currency issued by a central bank that intentionally controls the quantity to keep its value closely tied to a dollar.

Measured in pretty much any unit except US dollars, the US GDP has shrunk since Trump took office. If you measured the US economy in Euros, Pounds, or Yuan, the US economy meets most definitions of being in recession.

But the fact that most of this is hidden in the devaluation of the dollar and reporters never pay attention what units things are reported in.

Note that this also applies to a load of share prices. Quite often, growth in share price of multinational companies is actually a decline in the value of the currency that the company's shares are traded in (see: most reporting about MSFT last year).