Opinion Today
August 12, 2025
1 in 3 Americans say their financial situation has deteriorated in the past year, new survey finds Ivana Pino, Yahoo Finance A new Yahoo Finance/Marist Poll 2025 survey reveals insights into Americans' financial health and knowledge around key personal finance concepts.
Many Americans Perceive a Challenging Financial Outlook Marist Institute for Public Opinion While a majority of Americans indicate that their local cost of living is affordable, this survey from Yahoo Finance and the Marist Poll highlights a challenging financial outlook for many Americans. In fact, 45% of residents nationally believe their cost of living is unaffordable, and a notable one in three report their personal finances have worsened during the past year. US Consumers Less Swayed by “Made in USA” Conference Board US consumers are now less likely to factor country of origin—even the US—into their product buying decisions than they were just three years ago. Despite aggressive federal efforts to promote domestic production, the power of “Made in USA” to influence buying decisions fell 18% since 2022. That’s according to new data from The Conference Board, based on a survey of 3,000 US adults.
Trump’s economic approval rating ticks back up Eli Yokley & Cameron Easley, Morning Consult For the second week in a row, Trump’s approval rating sits at 45%, tying a record low measured during his second term in office, while 51% disapprove of his job performance, down 1 percentage point from the prior week. Ahead of Tuesday’s release of the federal government’s latest inflation report, perceptions of the president’s economic handling are on the upswing. Voters now only disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy and trade by 1-point margins, which are down from respective 6- and 4-point deficits in our prior survey. Voters Report Seeing Material Benefits in Their Communities From State-Level Energy and Environmental Policies Grace Adcox, Data for Progress Data for Progress conducted a national survey to assess how voters perceive energy and environmental policy efforts in their state. When asked to consider which party in their state is more active on energy and environmental issues like extreme weather, energy infrastructure development, habitat conservation, and pollution regulation, a plurality of voters (36%) think Democrats take more action on these issues. About 1 in 4 voters see Republicans as more active, and nearly 1 in 5 voters (18%) think neither party is taking action on these issues.
