Rubbish Check
Fox Business · August 13, 2026
source“LARRY KUDLOW: 156.4 million American adults love the new S&P 500 record high”
R6/ 10
Spin-heavy
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates Fox Business's Kudlow column claiming "156.4 million American adults love the new S&P 500 record high" a 6/10 because the 58 percent stock-ownership figure is real Gallup data, but the headline turns a passive ownership statistic into an active emotional endorsement nobody measured.
The Verdict
Spin-heavy. The underlying number checks out, but the headline's verb does the damage: Gallup measured who owns stock, not who loves a record high, and the piece never cites any poll asking Americans how they feel about the S&P's move to 7,800. Stacking an unmeasured emotion onto a real ownership statistic is the classic move that inflates a data point into a mandate.
What actually happened
Kudlow's column, an opinion piece, argues disinflation is taking hold under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and credits Trump-era policy for the S&P 500's climb to a fresh record of 7,800. To back the claim that ordinary Americans benefit, he cites Gallup's finding that roughly 58 percent of U.S. adults, or about 156 million people, own stock in some form, then frames that ownership as universal approval of the market's record run.
Key facts
- Gallup's April 2026 survey found 58% of U.S. adults own stock directly or through funds/retirement accounts, translating to roughly 156 million people, matching the figure Kudlow cites.
- That 58% is a decline from 62% in 2025, the first meaningful drop in stock ownership since 2016, a fact the column omits entirely.
- Stock ownership in Gallup's data is heavily skewed by income and education: 87% of households earning $100,000+ own stock versus 28% of those earning under $50,000, undercutting the column's "not just the wealthy" framing.
- The S&P 500 reaching 7,800 is presented as fact in the article and echoes Trump's own claim of "79 records," which the piece quotes directly rather than verifying independently.
- No poll data is cited on how Americans feel about the record high, the "love" in the headline is Kudlow's inference, not a measured sentiment.
What to watch for
Watch whether Gallup's ownership decline (62% to 58%) shows up in any follow-up coverage, since it cuts against the "broadening prosperity" narrative. Also worth tracking: whether the 156 million figure keeps getting recycled across outlets as evidence of sentiment rather than mere ownership, and whether the "79 records" claim gets independently verified against actual S&P 500 closing data.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
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