| If you're putting off a big purchase until after Election Day, you're hardly alone. Bloomberg Businessweek editor and writer Laura Bliss takes a look today at how anxiety about the outcome is affecting spending. Plus: One company that makes voting machines is confident its equipment is secure, and the Elon, Inc. podcast covers Musk's appearance at Donald Trump's New York rally. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. Between the two assassination attempts, a last-minute candidate swap, whipsawing poll numbers and constant reminders of the stakes, the 2024 election season won't soon be forgotten—partly because it's been so stressful. Some 69% of adults say the presidential campaign has been a significant source of stress in their lives, according to a recent report by the American Psychological Association based on a survey of a nationally representative sample of 3,305 people. That finding appears to be driven partly by the anxiety about the election's consequences: A majority of both Democrats and Republicans said they fear the election could mark the end of American democracy, and respondents from both parties reported roughly equal levels of stress about the future of the nation. More than 7 in 10 adults said they worried the results would bring violence.  It'll all be over but the counting after Election Day. Photographer: Anadolu Stress and anxiety take a toll on the body, and to the extent that emotions affect how people work, spend money and save, they're economically significant as well. A recent Ipsos poll that surveyed about 1,000 US adults found that almost half say they're spending less (47%) and saving more (47%) because of uncertainty related to the election. Although history shows that macroeconomic spending levels are rarely affected by presidential races, news reports indicate that Americans are holding off on big-ticket items like houses and cars until after they know the results. (They could also be waiting on the Federal Reserve's next interest rate cut.) Election stress can also affect productivity. In a 2022 study in Economics & Human Biology, Sankar Mukhopadhyay, an economics professor at the University of Nevada at Reno, used data from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey to measure the mental health effects of the 2020 presidential race. Self-reported levels of anxiety and depression steadily rose as the election approached—surpassing even the peak anxiety recorded in the early days of the pandemic—and dropped afterward. "It was kind of surprising to see how big those effects were," he says. Mukhopadhyay also found that mental health visits related to anxiety and depression, as well as prescription drug usage, followed a similar pattern. "How often you have to either see a doctor or take a prescription can reduce the amount of available time that you have for work," Mukhopadhyay says. These medications and visits aren't free, though he didn't try to add up the price as part of this study. Still, the increase in medical care "gives an idea about the real cost to the economy," he says. Mukhopadhyay says he plans to conduct a similar analysis of the 2024 election, once the relevant Census Bureau data is completely available. But it shouldn't take an economist to suggest that you take any election anxiety seriously. The standard coping advice from psychologists is worth heeding: Stay connected with friends and family, keep your body active and, yes, take breaks from the news—especially before bedtime. | 
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