New from @nealemahoney & @ChadMaisel: If everything feels harder than it should—canceling a subscription, fixing a bill, getting a refund, talking to a real-life customer service agent—you’re not imagining it.
We call that the Annoyance Economy, & it costs families $165 billion
Americans encounter bureaucratic friction in almost all consumer experiences, including subscriptions, insurance, and rentals—and “the American government doesn’t help the situation,” @AnnieLowrey argues:
1/ NEW: Being a consumer isn't just more expensive. It's more annoying. @AnnieLowrey digs into @Groundwork's new report by @ChadMaisel and @nealemahoney: Taking on the Annoyance Economy, $165 billion in wasted time, hidden fees, and daily hassles we pay to navigate modern life.
If everything feels harder than it should—canceling a subscription, fixing a bill, getting a refund, talking to real-life customer service—you’re not imagining it.
As @owenslindsay1 describes it: Digital consumer platforms are now more alike to casinos than traditional
NEW: Ever feel like everything takes longer, costs more, and leaves you more frustrated than it should? That’s not a coincidence.
We call it the Annoyance Economy, and it costs American families $165 billion a year in wasted time and money. 👇
This deal hits right at our new series with @TheProspect on the business of sports: billionaire team owners exploiting taxpayers for their own greed & gain.
NFL owners are the closest thing we have in America to medieval kings & queens.
🔗:
I read the NFL's entire 154-page Super Bowl bid document (and the details are wild).
The NFL gets almost everything for free — the stadium, hotel rooms, billboards, security, luxury suites — while keeping 100% of ticket sales and paying ZERO taxes.
READ: https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-nfls-super-bowl-demands-are-crazier
Americans bet ~$2B on the Super Bowl. Half of men 18-49 have an active online sports betting account. Lots of people (like me) enjoy sports betting, but ~5% of bettors suffer serious financial harms. My new piece with @AnuraagRoutray has some ideas for addressing those harms. 1/
Tariffs erase most of the benefit of the retroactive tax cuts people will be getting in their tax refunds this year.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ericadyork/p/tariffs-bite-into-tax-refunds?r=bjftp&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
It's hard—and expensive—to be a fan these days. Huge corporations rip us off by pricing hardworking people out of tickets, forcing us to buy a bunch of subscriptions, and so much more. It's a story we keep seeing again and again, and it doesn’t have to be this way.
NEW INVESTIGATION: @borrowerjustice & @towardsjustice just released a new report revealing disturbing trends in short-term, high-cost “Rent Now, Pay Later” loans & the predatory firms using them to profit off of working families struggling to pay rent.
Bezos saved $8.8 billion on the Amazon tax bill last year thanks to Trump's big beautiful bill.
Job openings plummet in warning sign for Trump's economy
US Job Openings fall to 6.54 million—the lowest level since 2020.
• Missed all economist estimates • Down from 6.93M in November • Layoffs are starting to edge up
Fox: A new poll shows 72% feel that the economy is in poor or only fair condition. That's not good.
1/ I grew up playing baseball at a high level. Something has changed over the last 20 years. Community leagues have been raided by elite travel teams charging outrageous fees and promising stardom.
Private equity has come for youth sports. @moetkacik in @TheProspect:
