Warning: This page contains spoilers for the July 24, 2025, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Theories) for Thursday, July 24, 2025 (Season 41, Game 229):
A version of this theoretical economic process was “horse & sparrow”; if you fed the horse enough oats, the sparrows fed afterwards
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Senay Goitom, a software engineer originally from Madison, Wisconsin
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Sarah Rubenfeld, an attorney from Houston, Texas
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Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey (15-day total: $430,910)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Scott Riccardi just keeps making his way up the leaderboard; his 15th win yesterday brought him to #8 overall in terms of regular play winnings and to #24 all time in terms of overall winnings, including all tournaments and consolation prizes. Today, he faces off against Sarah Rubenfeld and Senay Goitom in an attempt to match Ryan Long’s win total of 16 from 2022.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is trickle-down economics?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
I love how Jeopardy! makes sure to emphasize theoretical in today’s Final Jeopardy clue, because as the world has seen for years: “trickle-down economics” does not work. It only makes the wealthy class wealthier—they do not use the claimed economic benefits to better the lives of the working class, which would be the sole benefit of making life economically easier for the wealthy.
Prior to the rebranding by Ronald Reagan as “trickle-down”, the idea behind the pejorative term used to describe many parts of supply-side theory was that feeding the horse enough oats would lead to extra oats being left as excrement, which would then be picked at by the sparrows.
I’m not sure how the judges will rule if a contestant chooses the slightly less specific “supply-side economics” on this Final; if you’re playing at home, I’d be more lenient and give you credit—but I could also see why the judges might not give credit.
Also, from a writing perspective: I suspect that someone on the writer’s team might have seen the viral Reddit post from a few months back over on “Today I Learned” and turned it into a Final Jeopardy clue.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, July 24, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: World Geography; The Movies; Inventors & Inventions; Kid Lit En Español; The Myth Behind The Zodiac Sign; It Starts With “Me”)
Scott found the Daily Double right before the break, bringing his score to five figures. After 15 clues, the scores were Scott $10,000 Sarah -$400 Senay -$600.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Scott 11 correct 1 incorrect
Sarah 1 correct 1 incorrect
Senay 1 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Senay has recently started strength training.
Sarah has a great aunt who managed to get her family out of Austria before the Holocaust—and then became a spy.
Scott is more famous in his family for his cheesecake baking.
While Sarah and Senay both had good segments, Scott picked up another 6 correct responses to extend his lead.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Scott 17 correct 1 incorrect
Sarah 6 correct 1 incorrect
Senay 5 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Scott $13,000
Sarah $1,400
Senay $600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Classical Music; Reality TV; Geographic Literary Titles; What Are We Going To Do Now?; I’m Bored; A Sense Of Henri)
Sarah found DD2; unfortunately, she fell to $0 on an incorrect response. Not getting DD3 correct—ending the 2/2 streak Scott had been on—didn’t matter for our 15-time champ as he still cruised to a runaway.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Scott 27 correct 2 incorrect
Sarah 13 correct 2 incorrect
Senay 10 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 40 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Scott $20,400
Sarah $7,600
Senay $1,800
Sarah and Scott were both correct in Final; Scott goes for win #17 in tomorrow’s season finale!
Tonight’s results:
Senay $1,800 – $1,800 = $0 (What is consumer surplus?)
Sarah $7,600 + $0 = $7,600 (What is trickle down?)
Scott $20,400 + $3,690 = $24,090 (What is trickle down economics?) (16-day total: $455,000)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) KID LIT EN ESPAÑOL $1000 (clue #15)
Scott 7000 +3000 (Sarah -400 Senay -600)
2) I’M BORED $1600 (clue #8)
Sarah 3800 -3800 (Scott 17400 Senay -1000)
3) A SENSE OF HENRI $2000 (clue #16, $12800 left on board)
Scott 21400 -5000 (Sarah 2000 Senay -1000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -81
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Scott 3 4 5 3 4 5 3 4 5 3 4 5 5*
Sarah 4
Senay 3
DJ! Round:
Scott 4 5 3 5 2 5*
Sarah 4 3 4* 3† 4 3 4 4
Senay 3 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Scott 4.05
Sarah 3.67
Senay 2.67
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 40 (0.17 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Scott $23,400 Coryat, 27 correct, 2 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Sarah $11,400 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Senay $1,800 Coryat, 10 correct, 3 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,600
Lach Trash: $8,800 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,600
Lead Changes: 0
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Scott Riccardi, career statistics:
435 correct, 31 incorrect
25/26 on rebound attempts (on 68 rebound opportunities)
43.31% in first on buzzer (395/912)
22/29 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $56,000)
12/16 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,088
Sarah Rubenfeld, career statistics:
14 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,800)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,400
Senay Goitom, career statistics:
10 correct, 4 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $1,800
Scott Riccardi, to win:
17 games: 75.739%
18: 57.364%
19: 43.447%
20: 32.906%
21: 24.923%
Avg. streak: 19.122 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- No wagering suggestions will be posted due to today’s runaway game.
- Scott moves to a tie for 10th overall in terms of longest regular-play winning streaks, 18th in terms of all time winnings (including tournaments and consolation prizes), and 21st in terms of correct responses given on the show.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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I said trickle down theory – I assume that this or just trickle down would be taken?
Yes.
MarkO, I was somewhat similar to you. I immediately said “trickle-down”, but was then hesitant about whether to add the “economics”. I was glad that there was one contestant each who responded with one of my choices so I know for sure that either would have been accepted.
I don’t think sparrows eat horse excrement. Rather, horses are messy eaters and some of the oats will fall out of their mouths while they chew. At least I prefer this image.
I certainly wasn’t going to make that claim unsourced.
I even linked to my source.
I stand corrected. Come to think of it, horses are usually fed oats out of a bucket or feedbag to reduce spillage. Ronald Reagan was a horseman and would have known about this stuff.
The sparrows aren’t exactly eating horse excrement; they’re just picking out the oats that pass through the horse’s digestive system. Does that make the image less objectionable? 🙂
Ditto with other grains, especially corn. However, the falling out of their mouths while they chew takes place too. [Feedbags aren’t used all that much.] Whether a bucket or a trough, horses will grab a mouthful and then look around while they chew. In the horse barn that I frequented as a teen, the cats would follow the workers around at feed time so that the second a stall door was opened for the grain to be doled out, the cats would rush in to catch mice that would inevitably be below the trough.
I am following Scott’s earnings as he rises on both lists here on the site. On the All time winnings list, Scott is currently at #24 with $430,910. All he needs today would be $20,000 more and he shoots up 7 rungs to 18th place, to over $450,000. Thanks Andy for updating these two lists…
As a person of appropriate age to have grown up in the Reagan years and taken my 100-level Econ in university during the GHW Bush Administration (from a professor who had been an economist in the Reagan Administration), this one was a gimmie. All I needed to do mentally picture that description of the “horse and sparrows” analogy, and my immediate thought was “oh, that’s trickle-down!” 😀
That’s two in a row for me. Let’s see if I can take a 3-game streak into the break and finish 152-78 for the season tomorrow.
My thoughts were like, that’s something with “down” in it. Was it “hand-me-down”? No, “trickle down”, that’s it.
This is one of those that I almost second guessed myself out of thinking “it can’t be that easy, right?” Gratefully I didn’t and got it!
Every economist I’ve heard (some Nobel Laureates) have said trickle down is a recipe for failure, but every election cycle, conservatives tout supply-side BS like it’s THE way to go. We know enough economic philosophy+data ever since the Industrial Revolution to know what works and what doesn’t, but do the “Powers That Be” listen? Between a $40 Trillion debt, and idiots on both sides of the aisle, I’m tariffied about where we’re going.
“tariffied” 👍 Good one!
Trickle-down actually worked in the early decades (a century or so?) of the Industrial Revolution because most still lived in relatively small towns and the rich got pride, validation and even adulation from the people who got trickled down to via jobs, purchases from them by the “big man in town”, etc. and in many cases rubbed shoulders with each other at church, public meetings, etc. But then as big cities took over and the rich got richer, the captains of industry began “getting their strokes” from each other in country clubs, boardrooms, stock exchanges, etc. and from names on public buildings, Harvard endowments, etc. They well know it doesn’t work anymore, they just talk a good game and some people are still snowed.
Somehow this brings to mind “Richard Cory,” the song by Simon and Garfunkel based on the poem by Edward Arlington Robinson. I can see what you described, Lisa, in the story of Richard Cory as an example of the picture you painted with your words. Anyway, your description made me think of that song and poem which both have a sad ending.
As a government economist by profession, this was right in my wheelhouse. If someone had given “Supply side economics” as their response, I would, certainly, have given them credit for a correct response.
I didn’t watch tonight, but was going to! Then a friend contacted me and we went and met for dinner. I just came to the site and saw the FJ and guessed “supply and demand.”
Doubt that they’d accept that.
Though I do wonder had I been home and watching and had my 30 seconds of Think; whether or not I would have gotten it right. Hmm…
What do you or anyone else think Robert?
I once asked a college professor I had about the idea of Trickle Up economics. Not sure that our conversation went that far.
For society unfortunately it is more of a “siphon up”. As for horses, I bet they get tired of those “demanding” sparrows 😉.
Hi, Jeff.
If you meant what do I think of “Supply and demand” as an acceptable response, they definitely would not have accepted that. It is way too generic and something out of Father Guido Sarducci’s One Minute University. His summation of Economics 101 was “Supply and demand” and that’s all you need to know for Economics at the One Minute University. 🙂
On the other hand, if you meant do I think you would have gotten it if you were watching and had 30 seconds to think about it, yes, I think you would have come up with it because you were sort of on the right track. 🙂
Hi Robert,
Thank you for letting me know on this. My answer definitely seems pretty generic, so that makes sense it not being an acceptable answer.
And I do believe that there was a decent chance I would have gotten there with 30 seconds of Think. Coming to this site here and not having a timer and music makes FJ a different experience, to say the least.
Thanks again! 🙂
Can’t wait til tomorrow night to see if Scott will end the season with win #17…..I sure hope so! 7th straight runaway for him tonight!
As a hard-core right wing Reaganite was fond of saying: “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Oh, wait. That was JFK.
😉