Good morning. The very last American penny was minted yesterday. Its fatal sin: costing nearly 4 cents to make. Absence may make the (consumer’s) heart grow fonder, though. Businesses will eventually have to round up prices to the nearest nickel, which the Richmond Fed estimates could cost shoppers about $6mn per year. Penny for your thoughts: unhedged@ft.com.

K-shaped logic

Yesterday we argued that all the talk about a K-shaped economy had been overdone. America is very unequal in wealth and income. But there just isn’t much evidence to suggest that there has been a recent increase in inequality big enough to explain the stratification of consumer behaviour — the well-to-do spending merrily as the working class scrapes by — that companies have reported. Explaining other odd discontinuities in the economic picture (such as high GDP growth combined with low job creation) by reference to inequality doesn’t fit the evidence, either.