Some Americans are coping with financial stress by doom spending. Similar to doom scrolling, doom spending involves mindlessly partaking in an unhealthy habit to cope with stress or anxiety. Nearly half of Americans with credit cards are in debt. Forty-four percent carry a balance from month to month.

Star Wars The Phantom Menace cost the US economy an estimated $293 million in lost productivity.

House prices have gone up, mortgage rates and people's rents. Kyla Scanlon: And so when you tell them that things are getting cheaper, but their rent is not getting cheaper and their food is not getting cheaper, of course they're going to feel bad.

By most widely accepted measures, the state of the macroeconomy is historically robust: The topline unemployment rate has remained below 4% for the past two years, economic growth has been steady and recovered pandemic-era losses, and inflation has retreated to historical norms.