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Americans are seriously worried about their finances. Between high costs of living, tariffs, and job instability, driven, in part, by AI, the added anxiety means that consumers’ spending habits are shifting. And while they’re aiming to spend less overall, the stress also seems to be driving purchases that make them feel safer in an economy (and world?) that feels uncertain. According to a newly released Life360 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, heavy financial burdens are being felt by the majority of Americans. The survey found that a staggering 71% of Americans now feel economically vulnerable with 64% admitting their anxiety has increased since the start of 2025. Likewise, the top three words respondents chose to describe their emotions in 2025 were ones with negative connotations: stressful, nervous, and crazy. Americans are cutting backbut not when it comes to peace of mind Unsurprisingly, Americans are coping by spending less. 56% say they’ve cut back on dining or takeout, 47% have trimmed their online shopping habits, and 45% are vacationing less often. However, spending isn’t down across the board. In fact, in one category, it’s going up: safety and security (like emergency alert tools, home security, and digital protections). The category was the only one where respondents were investing more than they were cutting. 21% of respondents said they were investing more in these tools, with only 20% pulling back. “In moments of elevated economic uncertainty, the premium on security increases: Investors seek safe assets, businesses prioritize safe investments, and families double down on peace of mind,” Life360 economist Aaron Terrazas said in a blog post on the report. But, interestingly, it’s the younger generations who seem to be the most concerned with safety and security in modern times. While Gen X and Baby Boomers ranked health and wellness as their biggest priorities in terms of spending, Millennials and Gen Zers said safety and security were the most important. Fear, uncertainty, and financial strain Terrazas says those habits are likely shaped by the groups’ “formative economic experiences”, and pointed to “pandemic-era uncertainty” as hitting the younger generations especially hard. Terrazas told Fast Company, “Just like their grandparents and great-grandparents who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II, Gen Z and Millennials came of age in a fractious moment in world history. For young Americans who entered adulthood during the years from 9/11 to the Great Recession to the Covid-19 Pandemic, its natural that safety and security would rank high on their priorities, and those priorities are likely to remain top of mind as they move deeper into adulthood.” Therefore, it makes sense that while there are plenty of things Americans are scrapping, tools that make people feel safer are not one of them. In fact, 40% of parents said safety and emergency alert apps were non-negotiable,” which was the highest of all the categories. 55% of parents, and 43% of respondents overall, said they’d fight to keep safety and security subscriptions. Terrazas noted that the survey included “a mix of safety and security tools, including Life360, Citizen, Ring, ADT+ apps that offer everything from real-time location sharing to emergency alerts and home security” pressing that these kinds of tools “help people feel safer, more in control, and more connected in an unpredictable world.” That means that, for many, even as shopping, dining, vacations, and even streaming services take a backseat, the feeling of safety and security is of greater concern than ever. “As people are increasingly anxious, whether about their finances or physical safety, tools that provide ‘peace of mind’ are something people find indispensable,” Terrazas said.
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E-Commerce
Goldman Sachs‘ second-quarter profit exceeded Wall Street expectations, as turbulent markets raised revenue in its equities division to a record, and a pickup in dealmaking boosted investment banking. The results capture a growing trend of market turmoil boosting trading desks across Wall Street as investors rebalance their portfolios to manage tariff-related risks. The investment bank’s equities revenue rose 36% to $4.3 billion, higher than the $3.6 billion analysts were expecting, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. Fixed income, currencies, and commodities hauled in $3.47 billion, 9% higher than a year ago. Financing revenue in both equities and FICC hit records. While shifting tariff risks kept some companies on the sidelines, pent-up demand for dealmaking triggered a flurry of acquisitions. Still, trade policy uncertainty in recent weeks has revived concerns about how long the momentum would last. Goldman’s peers JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup reported strong growth in investment banking fees, while Morgan Stanley and Bank of America posted declines. “A narrowed range of outcomes on trade and the overall economy has helped CEO confidence and increased their willingness to transact,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said. “We’ve seen a pickup in momentum with both strategic and sponsor clients.” Goldman’s investment banking fees stood at $2.19 billion, rising 26% from a year ago. Analysts were expecting a nearly 10% jump. The bank remained the top adviser by deal value on mergers and acquisitions globally in the second quarter, according to Dealogic data. It advised Holcim on the spinoff of its North American business Amrize, now valued at $28 billion. It also worked with Informatica, which was bought by Salesforce for about $8 billion. “The well-above consensus rise in investment banking was (a surprise), with a lot of analysts snookered into thinking that macro uncertainty would hold back this line item more than it did,” said Stephen Biggar, director of financial services research at Argus Research. Advisory fees were significantly higher due to strength in the Americas and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the bank said. Revenue from debt underwriting fell slightly, while equities underwriting was unchanged. “The higher investment banking backlog suggests potential for strong deal flow in coming quarters,” said Kenneth Leon, research director at CFRA Research. Overall profit rose 22% to $3.7 billion, or $10.91 per share, for the three months ended June 30, exceeding estimates of $9.53. Shares fell 0.6%, but have climbed 23% this year, making them the fifth-best performer in the S&P 500 financial index. Bar for acquisition is high Revenue from Goldman’s asset and wealth management arm, which caters to institutions and high-net-worth individuals, dipped 3% to $3.78 billion due to weakness in equity and debt investments. The business is important for Goldman as it can offer steadier revenue than trading and investment banking. Solomon said the bar for any acquisition is high, while stressing the importance of scale in the asset and wealth business. “There’s got to be a strategic fit in terms of things that we’re prioritizing in the growth of our asset and wealth management franchise,” he said. “Then, of course, there’s financial analysis around that which really gets to what do you pay for? This is why the bar is high for doing these things.” The bank set aside $384 million as provisions for credit losses, compared with $282 million last year, mainly related to its credit card portfolio. Headcount fell to 45,900, 2% lower than the first quarter. The bank had planned to trim staffing by 3% to 5% in an annual performance review process. The stock boost has partly been driven by shareholder confidence in recent weeks after the bank cleared the Federal Reserve’s annual stress test, paving the way for it to increase its dividend by $1 a share from the third quarter. Saeed Azhar and Niket Nishant, Reuters
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E-Commerce
A coordinated international operation has hit the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies, the European Union’s police agency Europol announced Wednesday. Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16) group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Europol said that the cybercrime network was also involved in attacks in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. The police agency said the international operation led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the groups central server infrastructure was taken offline. Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said. Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks, sabotage attempts and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, including cyberattacks. The Associated Press is tracking them in a detailed map that shows the breadth of efforts to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine. As part of the latest operation, judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol’s Europe’s Most Wanted website. One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutors office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation. The attorney generals office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites. Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in in Basel earlier this year. Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted Ukrainian institutions, but have shifted their focus to attacking countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defence against the Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO. Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions. Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking sympathisers who use automated tools to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Operating without formal leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by ideology and rewards, Europol said. It added that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges. This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events, Europol said. Mike Cordor, Associated Press Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten, Geir Moulson, and Angela Charlton contributed.
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E-Commerce
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