Eight years ago, the country was in financial free fall. Now, with the 2016 presidential election looming, America’s economic landscape is much different: unemployment is below five percent; job growth is rising; and corporate profits and housing prices are booming.

But not far below the surface is a much less glowing economic reality: an America where wages are stagnant, and more work is temporary and part-time. If you’ve been unemployed for a long time, you’re likely to stay that way — and the gap between the rich and everyone else is wider than ever.

We at FRONTLINE, APM’s Marketplace and PBS NewsHour are joining forces to investigate why.

In the run-up to the November elections and continuing through the presidential inauguration in January 2017, we’ll bring you “How the Deck Is Stacked” — a series of collaborative, multiplatform reports with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal investigating this new American economy, the…