It doesn’t matter how many episodes of American Dad this country has watched, capitalism’s popularity is slowly falling in the US. A new poll released by Gallup yesterday found that just 54% of US adults view capitalism positively, the smallest share since the polling group started asking about the topic 15 years ago.

In 2010, Gallup first asked the question: “Just off the top of your head, would you say you have a positive or negative image of” capitalism and socialism. At the time, ~60% of respondents said they had a positive view of capitalism. And besides a small dip in 2018, that number remained relatively steady through 2021. Meanwhile, positive views of socialism have hovered at around 39% since 2010.

The American Dream is getting harder to sell. The latest survey, conducted in August, comes after a flood of recent data pointing to a tight job market, declining consumer sentiment, and a growing number of Americans who no longer believe hard work is the key to getting ahead.

But even now, Americans are still big fans of some parts of capitalism:

• In the most recent poll, 95% of respondents said they supported small business, while 81% supported free enterprise.
• Big business…did not fare as well. Only 37% of survey takers rated it favorably, a far cry from its peak positivity rating of 58% in 2012.

It’s political

Republicans still overwhelmingly support capitalism (74%) over socialism (14%).

But Democrats and Independents have waned in their support for capitalism in the last four years of the survey. This year marked the first time that a majority of Democrats rated socialism positively (66%), while just 42% viewed capitalism favorably.

Big picture: The survey reflects a shift among some Democratic voters—including New Yorkers who propelled Democratic-socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win in the city’s mayoral primaries. But they’re largely at odds with party leaders and more moderate Democrats, especially those on Wall Street.—MM

Supreme Court lifts restrictions on ICE immigration raids in LA. In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court overturned a federal judge’s ruling that barred ICE from stopping people based on their race, language, job, or location while a legal case over the stops plays out. As is typical for the court’s emergency docket, the majority did not explain its decision. However, in a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion,” but “it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors.” The court’s liberal justices dissented, saying the decision infringed on constitutional freedoms and that anyone who “looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” could be targeted. The underlying legal case will continue to play out in California, where ICE raids have sparked protests. The Trump administration also announced yesterday that ICE was beginning operations in Chicago.

France’s government collapsed amid fiscal pressures. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a confidence vote in Parliament, which will force President Emmanuel Macron to name a new premier in the country’s third change of government in just over a year. Bayrou’s ousting came after he proposed unpopular spending cuts and tax hikes to address the country’s mounting debt. Whoever comes next will still have to face the political challenge of passing a budget.

The Murdochs end their succession fight with Lachlan at the top of media empire. This time, the eldest boy won: The Murdoch family has reached a deal to end their legal battle over control of the companies owned by patriarch Rupert Murdoch. The agreement puts Lachlan Murdoch—his father’s desired successor because they share conservative political views—at the helm of a media empire that includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal among its holdings. Meanwhile, Lachlan’s three oldest siblings, who are more liberal, will get $1.1 billion each for their shares when a family trust that gave the four eldest Murdoch siblings equal stakes is dissolved in favor of a new one.—AR

If you’d hoped that New York City’s crackdown on Airbnb would let you live in the Big Apple like a sitcom character with no discernible job and a giant apartment, you’ve probably been disappointed.

In passing a law in 2023 to enforce the city’s existing ban on short-term rentals, lawmakers said it would get rid of rowdy tourists treating residential buildings like nightclubs and free up housing stock. Two years on, putting the squeeze on Airbnb has achieved the first goal, but not the second. According to the Wall Street Journal:

• A city council member said the law has reduced quality-of-life complaints related to obnoxious short-term neighbors.
• But Manhattan’s residential rental vacancy rate stood at 2.45% in July—which is near all-time low levels—while the median rent is at an all-time high of $4,700 per month.

That could be because in 2023, there were only ~38,500 Airbnb units in the city out of 1+ million rental units overall, per the WSJ.

Meanwhile, the hotel business is booming. The cost of a room has leapt 7% to $283/night, and occupancy has been higher this year than in 2023 during every month except July, according to CoStar.

Zoom out: Other US cities have also barred short-term rentals, as have overtouristed European locales like Spain, which asked Airbnb to take down 65,000 listings in May.—AR

Howard Stern addressed rumors of his firing from SiriusXM yesterday by pranking his morning radio audience into believing Bravo’s Andy Cohen was replacing him. But after about 10 minutes, Stern took over the mic to say he’s not leaving.

“I’ve been thinking about retiring,” Stern said. “Now I can’t.”

Stern has a five-year contract worth an estimated $500 million that expires at the end of this year. And the 71-year-old who pioneered having naked women on the radio said he’s “very happy” at the network and is working out a new deal. Still, the early morning stunt caused complications:

• SiriusXM’s stock was down 2% in premarket trading, but rebounded to close up 1.5%.
• Cohen hosting Andy 100 was so believable that several news outlets initially reported that Stern was out.

Radio vs. pods: In 2004, when Stern joined the company that would eventually become SiriusXM, he brought a name brand and a big audience. Now, Stern is working less, and SiriusXM is home to half of the top 20 podcasts in the US. Podcasts have become an important source of revenue. The company doesn’t disclose how much they bring in, but the New York Times reports that in 2024, SiriusXM made $606 million in revenue outside subscriptions, up from $475 million in 2022, with podcast ads comprising most of it.

Stern warning: SiriusXM shares tumbled nearly 60% last year while revenue fell by ~3%. Subscribers are down from 35 million in 2019 to 33 million this year. A Credit Suisse analyst estimated in 2020 that if Stern left, 15% of his audience would go with him—a potential loss of 2.7 million listeners.—DL

Your decision not to impulse buy that imported Etsy tea set once low-value packages to the US started getting tariffed was felt around the world. Well, not all by itself, but postal traffic to the US did fall off precipitously last month as soon as the de minimis exception—which had allowed packages valued below $800 to enter the country without import taxes—was ended by the Trump administration, the UN’s postal organization said. According to the Universal Postal Union (UPU):

• Postal traffic to the States dropped 81% on Friday, Aug. 29, the day the exception ended, compared to the previous Friday.
• Of the organization’s 192 member countries, 88 said they had suspended some or all postal services to the US until a solution to the disruptions caused by the change, which requires collecting many more duties, could be sorted out.

The UPU said it has released a tool for calculating the duties on packages to help reduce the burden on postal agencies. But since shipments with a value below the de minimis threshold comprise 90% of cargo that enters the US by volume, according to Customs and Border Protection, the online shopping landscape has shifted drastically for both buyers and sellers, and you may have fewer boxes to break down on recycling day for a while.—AR