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FREAKONOMICS

Most Americans are worrying “a great deal” about the economy and inflation

Water is wet, and Americans are anxious about the nation’s finances.

4/4/25 8:35AM

With “Liberation Day” only just behind us — an occasion that you may have marked with new traditions like selling loads of Apple stock (or buying loads of Apple stock), and guessing which island territories were slapped with tariffs — it’s fair to say that the economy is top of mind for many right now.

But a recent Gallup poll, published Thursday, found that most Americans (60%) were already highly concerned about the general “economy” when the survey was conducted a month ago, topping the list of worries ahead of other key issues like healthcare costs, inflation, and federal spending.

Fret your bottom dollar

Still, Americans were only slightly less worried about the country’s healthcare than its economy, with 59% reporting worrying “a great deal” about the availability and affordability of healthcare, up from 51% in the 2024 version of the poll.

Interestingly, while financial stresses are currently a central concern for much of the nation, it appears that social issues have fallen by the wayside in the typical American’s anxiety rotation compared to last year. The proportion of respondents who were very worried about crime was down 6 percentage points from 2024, with homelessness and immigration also seeing relative decreases.

And though the quality of the environment is more worrisome for Americans in 2025, the share of those who were very worried about availability of energy was 35%, down from almost half of those surveyed the year before — perhaps a case of when one major societal concern opens, another (temporarily) closes.

Millie Giles

INVISIBLE INK

9/8/25

Fine line, small, and simple: the latest tattoo trend

The rising popularity of “tiny tattoos” could mark a new status symbol, per Business Insider.

Tattoo mater tattooing dove of peace on woman's hand

US Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.7 Billion

Your upcoming Powerball loss is DraftKings’ gain

As the Powerball jackpot has stretched to $1.8 billion, users are flooding into DraftKing’s Jackpocket lottery app.

Max Knoblauch9/5/25

Millie Giles

50 winks

9/3/25

Americans that live in colder states are more likely to sleep longer

But most US adults still aren’t getting enough shut-eye.

American flag design pillow. USA Flag Throw Pillow. Patriotic concept

Max Knoblauch

9/2/25

Paramount and Microsoft’s Activision agree to partner on a “Call of Duty” movie

Less than a month after forming, Paramount Skydance has landed another major piece of intellectual property. The studio said it’s signed a deal with Microsoft’s Activision to create a live-action “Call of Duty” film.

The competitive shooter is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world and has been the US’s bestselling series for the past 16 years. The next title in the 22-year-old franchise, “Black Ops 7,” will debut in November.

Paramount, which closed its merger with Skydance in August, has had a summer of big deals. It acquired UFC broadcast rights in a $7.7 billion deal with TKO last month, following a $1.5 billion deal for “South Park” rights in July. The company also lured “Stranger Things” creators away from Netflix last month for a four-year film and TV development deal.

Paramount & Activision Team For ‘Call Of Duty’ Movie

Tom Jones

9/1/25

“Blinding Lights” just officially hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Over the weekend, The Weeknd’s biggest hit crossed over the impressive threshold, with Spotify marking the feat with an Instagram post that the artist shared to his story.

According to Spotify data collated by Kworb, the song now has a staggering 5,000,010,581 streams on the platform, and is racking up nearly 1.5 million streams each day at the time of writing.

Blinding Lights crosses 5 billion chart — Sherwood News

While Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” released about two years before “Blinding Lights,” looks like it’ll be the next song to hit the 5 billion boundary, “Starboy,” another song from The Weeknd, might not be too far behind.

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is about to hit 5 billion streams on Spotify