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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.

Hyunsoo Rim

WOULD LOVE TO CONNECT

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Why people are flirting on LinkedIn — and job hunting on Tinder

The job market is tough, and so is dating. Americans are starting to mix the two.

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Despite the government’s best efforts, China’s birth rate just hit a new low

Deaths in the nation, meanwhile, have never been higher in the 21st century.

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OpenAI set to air a minute-long Super Bowl ad for a second consecutive year, per WSJ

OpenAI is expected to broadcast a lengthy commercial at Super Bowl LX, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Having aired its first-ever paid ad at last year’s Big Game, the ChatGPT maker is set to take another 60-second ad slot during NBC’s broadcast on February 8, according to people familiar with the matter.

Exclusive | OpenAI Set to Run Another Super Bowl Ad as Chatbot Competition Heats Up

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GOLDEN RATIO

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Big winners at the Golden Globes could indicate this week’s Oscar noms

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Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.