Right now, the United States is facing the second longest period of economic expansion since the end of World War II, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. That means business has been surging with increasing economic output. If this continues a few more months, it will surpass the longest boom from 1991 to 2001. Other measures suggest the economy has never been better. The unemployment rate hit a 49-year low of 3.7 percent late last year. The stock market, measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, has been hitting record highs, above 26,000. And the inflation rate, is low, at about 2 percent. "All those things together should suggest that people should be pretty content," said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University. "But, at the same time, there are structural problems in the economy which remain." 

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