There was a time when leaders followed a linear path. Pick a lane, specialize, climb the ladder, and stay the course for decades. But that norm is unraveling. Global complexity demands leaders who are adaptive, integrative, and, above all, multifaceted. These individuals dont fit neatly into one category; they may be artists and scientists, coaches and corporate strategists, or data analysts and storytellers. And far from being a liability, these dualities are now an asset.
To be successful in todays world, leaders need to connect across ideas, industries, and cultures. To be able to do that skillfully, you must play in more than one arena. Its no longer just about what you do during your nine-to-five. Its the sum of your experiences and the unique value you bring to the world.
This requires you to embrace your full complexity, not just for personal growth, but also as a competitive edge. The future of leadership belongs to those who can hold nuance, navigate change, and bring their whole selves to the table.
Less specializing, more integrating
The old story was: Pick a lane and stay in it. Specialization was in favor. But now, as AI handles narrow expertise, whats left for us? The answer lies in focusing on integration and expression. The leaders who thrive now are those who connect dots across disciplines, sectors, and identities. They see what others miss because they live in more than one world.
Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi didnt follow a linear path. She studied physics, chemistry, and math. She also played in a band and excelled at cricket. Then she eventually went on to pursue design thinking and innovation at Yale. Her leadership wasnt just data-driven; it was holistic. She could speak to Wall Street and public health advocates with equal ease. And under her leadership, PepsiCos revenue nearly doubled, rising from $35 billion to over $63 billion.
The best leaders integrate diverse skills and experiences to drive innovation and connect more authentically with their teams. This integration not only broadens perspective but also deepens trust, fosters creativity, and empowers teams to operate with greater empathy and cohesion.
Navigating change with agility
Todays leaders are not only leading through change; they are the change. They embody fluidity, resilience, and the ability to evolve across multiple life chapters. In his book Range, journalist David Epstein writes: Approach your own personal voyage and projects like Michelangelo approached a block of marble, willing to learn and adjust as you go, and even to abandon a previous goal and change directions entirely should the need arise.
After a few years of working in finance, Shuo Zhai followed his passion for architecture and pursued his master’s degree at Yale. He worked with Frank Gehry at Gehry Partnersand in parallel, he sings with the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale, and works as a world-class chamber music pianist. He believes that his multidisciplinary approach enables better problem-solving, and deeper empathy and understanding, ultimately leading to more effective architecture and music. The ability to pivot and grow isnt built in one role: Its built across roles. Leaders who draw from multiple domains are more resilient and curious during transitions.
In his own journey, Tony Martignetti transitioned from a finance and strategy executive in the life sciences industry to a leadership development facilitator and experience designer. Along the way, he reconnected with his identity as an artistbringing creativity, storytelling, and visual thinking into his work with leaders. That blend of analytical precision and artistic intuition has allowed him to help others navigate ambiguity, reimagine their narratives, and unlock new dimensions of their leadership. Where have you built resilience in one part of your life that could serve you in another?
Why multifaceted leadership matters
Jessica Wan, spent nearly two decades as a marketing and strategy executive at organizations such as Apple, San Francisco Opera, Smule, and Magoosh. Eventually, she transitioned into a leadership coach and venture partner. But shes continually applied learnings from her lifelong artistic identity as a musician and singer to leadership challenges. This rare blend of analytical acumen and creative sensibility enables her to help leaders navigate change and transform chaos into clarity.
Jessica launched her podcast to spotlight individuals who embody this multidimensional path: a neuroscientist and an Indian classical dancer, an entomologist and a journalist, and a business professor and a Broadway investor. Their message? You dont have to shrink to fit in. When a young person says, I want to be an astronaut and a ballerina, we want to be able to say: Yes, you can.
How to embrace being a multifaceted leader
Leaders arent just executives. They are also musicians, poets, caregivers, podcast hosts, and community volunteers. And denying those dimensions leads to fragmentation and fatigue. Instead of hiding those parts, successful leaders integrate themand invite them into the room.
We need to recognize the value of integrating these roles into our leadership approach. But before we can do so, we must first explore them. Heres a quick exercise to get you started:
What is a role outside your professional life that matters deeply to you?
What leadership traits have you developed from that role?
How could you apply those traits to a current work challenge?
This isnt just about driving career success; it is about living a more fulfilling life. Its about giving yourself and others permission to fully live into your potential.
We believe this is the future of leadership: bold, complex, curious, and fully alive. For us, bringing our artistic backgrounds into the leadership space has profoundly shaped our work in the business world. The arts invite presence, reflection, and imaginationthree qualities that help leaders break free from rigid thinking and connect with the deeper purpose behind their work.
Our invitation: Audit the dimensions of your identity, find the intersections, and show up fullynot just for your team, but for yourself. You dont have to choose between your roles. The world needs all of you.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is alerting the public via its recall website to be on the lookout for bags of frozen vegetables, due to possible contamination from Listeria.
New York-based Endico Potatoes is voluntarily recalling peas and carrots and mixed vegetables sold between July 18 and August 4 in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
The company ceased distribution of the product after sampling by the state of Pennsylvania revealed the presence of the bacteria. No illnesses have been reported to date, and the FDA and Endico are continuing to investigate the cause.
What is Listeria and what are the symptoms?
Listeria monocytogenes is a type of disease-causing bacteria that is generally transmitted when food is harvested, processed, prepared, packed, transported, or stored in manufacturing or production environments contaminated with the bacteria, according to the FDA.
Infection can lead to severe symptoms such as fever, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, poses a particular risk to vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. In pregnant women, it can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.
What is the product information for the recall?
The product was packed in frozen 2.5-lb clear plastic bags under the Endico label. Details for the affected products are as follows:
“PEAS AND CARROTS”:
Lot number: 110625
Production date: June 11, 2025
Use by date: June 10, 2027
“MIXED VEGETABLES”:
Lot number: 170625
Production date: June 17, 2025
Use by date: June 16, 2027
The lot codes are printed on the side of the bag.
What if I have these products in my freezer?
Consumers who have purchased Endico brand peas and carrots or mixed vegetables with these lot codes are urged to not consume the products and to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Consumers with questions may contact the company by phone at 1-800-431-1398.
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week, while hiring by private employers slowed in August, offering further evidence that labor market conditions were softening.
The reports were released a day after government data showed there were more unemployed people than positions available in July for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Job growth has shifted into stall-speed, with economists blaming President Donald Trump’s sweeping import tariffs and an immigration crackdown that is hampering hiring at construction sites and restaurants.
The slackening labor market likely positions the Federal Reserve to resume cutting interest rates later this month, though much would depend on August’s employment report to be published on Friday and consumer price data due next week.
“We continue to see softness growing in the labor market as tariff policy uncertainty lingers, immigration changes take effect, and AI adoption grows,” said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at Comerica Wealth Management. “The silver lining is the weaker the jobs data, the more cover there is for stimulative interest rate cuts that are on the horizon.”
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 237,000 for the week ended August 30, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 230,000 claims for the latest week.
Still, layoffs remain relatively low as businesses generally hoard workers following difficulties in finding labor during the pandemic, anchoring the labor market. The unsettled economic environment, stemming from the protectionist trade policy has, however, left businesses reluctant to increase headcount.
That hesitancy to hire means people who are laid off have difficulty landing new opportunities. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid slipped 4,000 to 1.940 million during the week ending August 23, the claims report showed.
The Fed’s “Beige Book” report on Wednesday noted that “firms were hesitant to hire workers because of weaker demand or uncertainty.” The softening labor tone was reinforced on Thursday with the release of the ADP National Employment Report, which showed private employment increased by 54,000 jobs last month after advancing by 106,000 in July.
The downbeat assessment of the labor market was also evident in the Institute for Supply Management survey, which showed a measure of services sector employment contracting for a third straight month in August.
Economists, as a result, are bracing for another month of tepid job growth when the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its closely watched employment report on Friday. A Reuters survey of economists estimated nonfarm payrolls increased by 75,000 jobs last month after rising by 73,000 in July.
Employment gains averaged 35,000 jobs per month over the three months to July compared to 123,000 during the same period in 2024, the government reported in August. The unemployment rate is forecast to climb to 4.3% from 4.2% in July.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell last month signaled a possible rate cut at the U.S. central bank’s September 16-17 policy meeting, acknowledging the rising labor market risks, but also added that inflation remained a threat. The Fed has kept its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range since December.
Stocks on Wall Street were trading higher. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields fell.
Trade deficit widens
Tariffs continued to influence trade data. A separate report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis showed the trade deficit ballooned 32.5% to $78.3 billion in July amid record inflows of capital and other goods.
The duties have caused wild swings in imports and ultimately the trade deficit, distorting the overall economic picture. A U.S. appeals court ruled last week that most of Trump’s duties, which have boosted the nation’s average tariff rate to the highest level since 1934, were illegal, creating more uncertainty for businesses.
Imports soared 5.9% to $358.8 billion. Goods imports vaulted 6.9% to $283.3 billion. They were boosted by a $12.5 billion surge in imports of industrial supplies and materials, which reflected a $9.6 billion increase in non-monetary gold imports. But petroleum imports were the lowest since April 2021.
Capital goods imports increased $4.7 billion to a record $96.2 billion, driven by computers, telecommunications equipment and other industrial machinery. Semiconductor imports declined $0.8 billion. Imports of consumer goods increased $1.3 billion, though pharmaceutical preparations imports fell $1.1 billion.
Imports of motor vehicles, parts and engines decreased $1.4 billion. Exports rose 0.3% to $280.5 billion. Exports of goods edged up 0.1% to $179.4 billion. Capital goods exports increased $0.6 billion to a record $59.9 billion, lifted by shipments of computer accessories and civilian aircraft. Exports of excavating machinery fell $1.5 billion.
Exports of motor vehicles, parts and engines increased $0.3 billion. Industrial supplies and materials exports decreased $0.2 billion as finished metal shapes dropped $2.5 billion. Non-monetary gold exports increased $2.9 billion.
The goods trade deficit widened 21.2% to $103.9 billion. The goods trade deficit with China increased $5.3 billion to $14.7 billion. Imports of services increased $1.7 billion to a record $75.5 billion in July, reflecting rises in transport, travel and other business services.
Exports of services increased $0.6 billion to a record high of $101.0 billion, driven by the transport, charges for the use of intellectual property as well as government goods and services. Travel services, however, dropped $0.3 billion amid the White House’s immigration crackdown.
Trade subtracted a record 4.61 percentage points from GDP in the first quarter before sharply reversing and adding 4.95 percentage points in the second quarter, also the largest contribution on record.
The economy grew at a 3.3% annualized rate last quarter after contracting at a 0.5% pace in the first three months of the year. Goldman Sachs lowered its third-quarter GDP growth estimate to a 1.6% rate from a 1.7% pace.
“Disruptions from tariffs are still making their rounds across the economy and increased uncertainty continues to be present in firms’ decision-making processes,” said Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James.
Lucia Mutikani, Reuters
If you’re a regular Fast Company reader, you may come check the site when you want news, or follow us on social media. But when you’re looking for something on Google, would you also like to find out if Fast Company has covered your question already? We know the Google search pages are getting harder and harder to navigate, with AI summaries and countless little boxes, but there’s a new way to ensure you’re seeing Fast Company stories relevant to your query near the top of your search results.
Google has a new feature called “Preferred Sources,” which lets you select which news outlets appear in the Top Stories box. The next time you’re searching for a news event, you’ll see relevant Fast Company stories first instead of a random selection of local news sites rehashing the same version of the news. Google also plans to roll out a specific From Your Sources” section that will then also feature Fast Company stories.
Here’s what to do.
1. Go to this Google link
Clicking here will bring you to the Google page that lets you select your sources, with Fast Company already filled in.
[Screenshot: Google]
2. Click the check box next to Fast Company
Add a little blue check to the left. You can also do this from the Top Stories section on the search page by clicking the star icon next to the Top Stories header.
3. Refresh your search results
If there’s a Fast Company story that fits your search criteria, it should now be near the top.
You can also, of course, add other sites you like to further customize your experience. But now your Google results can better reflect the sources you want to hear from.
President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night.
The guest list is set to include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and a dozen other executives from the biggest artificial intelligence and tech firms, according to the White House.
One notable absence from the guest list is Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump, whom the Republican president tasked with running the government-slashing Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.
The dinner will be held in the Rose Garden, where Trump recently paved over the grassy lawn and set up tables, chairs, and umbrellas that look strikingly similar to the outdoor setup at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Rose Garden Club at the White House is the hottest place to be in Washington, or perhaps the world,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “The president looks forward to welcoming top business, political, and tech leaders for this dinner and the many dinners to come on the new, beautiful Rose Garden patio.”
The event will follow a meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which first lady Melania Trump will chair.
During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own childrenempowering, but with watchful guidance,” she said in a statement. We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare Americas children.
The White House confirmed that the guest list for the dinner is also set to include Google founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadivé, Palantir executive Shyam Sankar, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang, and Shift4 Payments executive chairman Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman was an associate of Musk whom Trump nominated to lead NASA, only to revoke the nomination around the time of his breakup with Musk. Trump cited the revocation of the nomination as one of the reasons Musk was upset with him and called Isaacman totally a Democrat.
The dinner was first reported on Wednesday by The Hill.
Trumps outreach to top tech executives could deepen emerging divides within the Republican Party.
One of Trumps closest allies in Congress, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), delivered a sharp criticism of the tech industry during a speech at a conservative conference in Washington on Thursday morning. He criticized the lack of regulation around artificial intelligence and singled out Meta and ChatGPT.
The Missouri senator also blasted a recent congressional effort that nearly passed, which would have barred states and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years. Trump, meanwhile, has criticized states for holding back AI innovation with regulations.
Hawley accused conservatives of pushing to abandon states rights, all in the name of what? Big Tech?
The government should inspect all of these frontier AI systems so we can better understand what the tech titans plan to build and destroy, Hawley added.
At least some of the attendees at the presidents dinner are expected to participate in the task force meeting, which aims to develop AI education for American youths.
Last month, the first lady launched a nationwide contest for students in grades K-12 to use AI to complete a project or address a community challenge. The project was aimed at showing the benefits of AI, while Trump has also highlighted its drawbacks.
Melania Trump lobbied Congress this year to pass legislation that imposes penalties for online sexual exploitation using imagery that is real or an AI-generated deepfake.
The president signed the Take It Down Act in May.
By Michelle L. Price, Associated Press
Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.
Who discovered the lightbulb? If you answered “Thomas Edison,” you’re not aloneand you’re also not quite right.
Despite conventional wisdom that associates great inventions with lone geniuses, breakthrough inventions are team efforts. Incandescent light bulbs existed before Edison was born. His patent built on prior versions of the light bulb, aiming to make it practical and affordable. Even then, it wasnt a solo achievementEdison collaborated with a team of skilled collaborators, known as the Muckers, whose contributions have largely faded from memory. Yet it was Edisons name on the patent, and thats the version of history that stuck.
Were suckers for lone genius narratives like Edisonsthe brilliant scientist, the fearless military general, or the savvy CEO. The version of history we glean from popular books, movies, and the internet attributes greatness to single individuals.
But individual greatness is rarely the whole story. Research shows that teams are the main creators of new knowledge across most industries. New ideas dont emerge fully formed from the mind of a single personit takes collaboration and teamwork to develop them to their full potential.
In reality, the engine behind sustained successwhether in science, business, or governmentisnt a singular mind. Its a well-designed team.
The illusion of individual success
We tend to over-attribute both success and failure to individuals. Psychologists call this the fundamental attribution error: we explain peoples behavior by their traits, rather than their context. If a product flops, we blame the CEO. If a startup takes off, the founder is a genius. We rarely ask about the teams that surround them.
It gets worse. Even inside groups, people regularly overestimate their own contributions to collective endeavors. In one study, researchers asked each team member to estimate what percent of the groups success they were responsible for. The total? A whopping 235%. Thats a lot more than 100%!
Our individualistic tendencies lead us to build groups and organizations around the wrong assumptions. If you believe success comes from star individuals, you hire stars and hope for fireworks. But for complex problemsand most of our work now is complexit takes more knowledge and skill than any individual has to solve it. Thats why we need to put the conditions in place for individuals to combine and build on what each alone can bring.
What good teams do differently
In my research, Ive found that high-performing teams arent built through charisma, happy accidents, or trust falls. Theyre designed for success. There are four key elements of group structure that maximize your chances of creativity:
Composition: Many teams are composed haphazardly, based on whos available and office politics. But the best teams are small (i.e., three to seven members) and have a task-appropriate, diverse mix of knowledge and skills.
Goals: Its hard to achieve a common goal when members have different ideas about where theyre headed. Thats why clear, measurable, vivid goals are a critical antecedent for building teams that can outperform individuals. For instance, innovation at NASA spiked when John F. Kennedy swapped the vague goal of, advance science by exploring the solar system, to the vivid goal to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
Task design: Teams can bring ideas to life when they have well-designed tasks that require a variety of skills, give members autonomy over how to conduct their work, and allow members to see progress toward their goals. For creative work, poorly designed tasks are repetitive and control the process, like a manufacturing assembly line. Well-designed tasks give teams whole pieces of work and the freedom to explore, such as the design firm IDEOs effort to redesign the shopping cart to better fit the needs of users.
Norms: Too often, groups are places where members fall into bad habits. In many organizations, workers are used to sitting passively in meetings. They worry that experimentation and suggesting new ideas will be scornedor even punished. But the most innovative teams actively fight these norms. Leaders actively encourage members to share their ideas, experiment, and learn from one another. And the battle against norms toward conformity and the status quo never ends. IDEO, for instance, plasters reminders of these norms on the walls of their buildingsthings like defer judgement, encourage wild ideas, and build on the ideas of others.
The real edge
We live in an era that celebrates ideas: TED Talks, startup pitches, visionary founders. But ideas dont execute themselves. And many great ideas die in bad teams. The reverse is also true: A good team can turn a mediocre idea into something extraordinary. Not because theyre smarter, but because theyre structured to think together better.
The great innovations and businesses of today were never built by a solitary lone genius. For all the credit Steve Jobs gets, he couldnt have built Apple and its collaborative innovation engine without the help of his cofounders and teammates. As you dig deeper into stories of great innovations, you almost always find a great team just under the surface.
The next time youre tempted to credit a lone genius, remember the people behind the curtain. The collaborators, the editors, the dissenters: the ones who made the idea betteror made it real.
Good ideas matter. But good teams matter more.
Stephen Miran, President Donald Trumps pick to join the Federal Reserve board, said Thursday that he would remain a White House employee even if the Senate confirms him to fill an unexpired term at the central bank.
Miran, who was nominated to fill a gubernatorial term set to expire in January, made the disclosure at a hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
He said that on the advice of his lawyers, he would take an unpaid leave of absence as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Miran later said he would only resign from the Republican administration if he were nominated for a longer term at the Fed.
His answer instantly triggered alarm bells about the Fed’s independence, suggesting that the central bank could ultimately become subservient to Trump’s whims instead of its congressional mandates to keep prices stable and maximize employment. Political control of the Fed could erode the faith that the American population and investors worldwide place in the U.S. economy, which could threaten global markets and national prosperity.
Democrats blasted Mirans plan to keep his day job at the White House.
Your independence has already been seriously compromised, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said. You are going to be technically an employee of the president of the United States but an independent member of the board of the Federal Reserve. Thats ridiculous.
Mirans hearing reflected the broader battle over Trumps efforts to gain control of the Fed. Because of the possible negative impacts on the economy, the Fed has tried to act based on the economic data rather than electoral considerations.
Trump, however, has engaged in a prolonged campaign of pressuring and mocking Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the benchmark interest rate to Trumps liking, a move that could end up pumping more money into the economy and creating greater inflationary risks. The Fed has yet to reach its 2% inflation target and has held its rates steady in part because of the uncertainties created by Trumps import taxes.
The president has also sought to apply pressure on the Fed over its renovation of its headquarters and other buildings and has tried to fire Lisa Cook as a Fed governor over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. Cook has said she will not resign and has sued to overturn Trump’s move.
Miran, in his answers to senators, played down the controversy over Trumps desire to control the Fed. Miran said that if he were confirmed to fill the rest of Adriana Kuglers term, he would act based on his own judgments about inflation and employment.
Look, the president nominated me because I have policy views, that, I suppose that he liked, he said told the committee chairman, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. If Im confirmed to this role, I will act independently, as the Federal Reserve always does, based on my own personal analysis of economic data.
Even Republicans saw the risks to the loss of Fed independence. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked Miran to commit to ignore all the rhetoric from all politicians and make his own choices.
But Miran arrives with the baggage of having worked for a president who has expressed disdain for the Fed’s tradition of independence. Trump has argued that he knows more about monetary policy as he has called for the Feds benchmark rate to be cut by a full 3 percentage points.
In June, a Fed forecast of future rates showed emerging divisions among the policymakers. Seven projected no rate cuts at all this year, two indicated one cut and 10 forecast at least two reductions.
This is a crisis moment for the Federal Reserve, for the financial system and for the economic stability of families all across this country, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters before the start of the hearing.
Warren added that the Fed boards independence and their efforts to make decisions based on whats really happening in the economy not what the politics are is something that benefits every single American. Donald Trump wants to burn that to the ground.
Under questioning by Warren, Miran declined to say whether Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, saying only that Congress certified Biden as president. Miran declined under questioning to contradict Trumps unfounded claim that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had faked jobs numbers for political reasons.
Trump fired the bureau’s head after severe revisions to the July employment report showed the economy was potentially weaker than Trump’s claims of a golden age.
There are also questions about how Miran interprets the Fed’s independence. He said that the president is entitled to express his opinion on monetary policy and that consideration of climate change as an economic force by Fed officials would be a politicization of the central bank.
In a 2024 paper he co-wrote for the Manhattan Institute, Miran argued that the Fed was already politicized by highly political, personnel who move freely between the White House and the central banks headquarters.
In that same paper, Miran wanted to heighten presidential control, saying that having Fed board members serve at the will of the president would confer greater democratic legitimacy on the Fed.
By indicating that he could return to the White House, Miran seemed to undermine one of his own recommendations in his paper.
To further insulate board members from the day-to-day political process, they should be prohibited from serving in the executive branch for four years following the end of their term, the paper said.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
President Donald Trump likes to boast about how much money the U.S. Treasury is raking in from the massive taxestariffshes slapped this year on imports from almost every country in the world.
We have trillions of dollars coming into our country, Trump said Wednesday. If we didnt have tariffs, we would be a very poor nation and we would be taken advantage of by every other nation in the world, friend and foe.
But two courts have now ruled that his biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. If the Supreme Court agrees and strikes them down for good, the federal government could have to pay back many of the taxes its already collected from companies that import foreign products into the United States.
Were talking about hundreds of billions of dollars potentially in refunds affecting thousands and thousands of importers, said trade lawyer Luis Arandia, a partner with the law firm of Barnes & Thornburg. Unwinding all that will be the largest administrative effort in U.S. government history.
Ordinary Americans, who’ve had to pay higher prices on some products because of the tariffs, are unlikely to share in the windfall. Any refunds would go instead to the companies that paid the levies in the first place.
The refunds would also reverse the flow of tariff revenue the president has counted on to help pay for the massive tax-cut bill he signed July 4 and would threaten, he warns, to literally destroy the United States of America.
At issue are revenues raised from tariffs Trump imposed this year by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). One set of IEEPA tariffs targeted almost every country on earth after he declared that the United States massive and persistent trade deficits amounted to a national emergency. Another was aimed at Canada, China and Mexico and was meant to counter the illegal flow of drugs and immigrants across U.S. borders.
But a specialized federal trade court in New York ruled in May that the president overstepped his authority by ignoring Congress and imposing the IEEPA tariffs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week largely upheld the trade courts decision, though it also ordered the lower court to re-consider whether there was any legal fix short of striking down the tariffs completely.
The appellate judges also paused their own ruling until mid-October to give the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court something that it did on Wednesday. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to take up the case and hear arguments in early November.
If the high court strikes down the IEEPA tariffs, importers could be entitled to refunds. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency reports that it had collected more than $72 billion in IEEPA tariffs through Aug. 24.
For importers, Ted Murphy, co-leader of the international trade practice at the Sidley Austin law firm, said: Its a question of what youre going to have to do to get the refund.
And the options are everything from nothing the government may just automatically refund it; I dont think this is likely, but thats one option. There could be an administrative process, so you have to go to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and apply for a refund of your IEEPA tariffs. Or you could have to file your own court case.
Theres a precedent for courts setting up a system to give companies their money back in trade cases. In the 1990s, the courts struck down as unconstitutional a harbor maintenance fee on exports and set up a system for exporters to apply to get their money back.
Companies got refunds, Murphy said. One hitch: In that case, the government did not have to pay interest on the tax it collected and had to pay back. Its unclear whether the government would have to pay interest on any IEEPA tariff refunds.
The Trump administration might balk at paying back the tariffs its collected. Trump has already said he doesnt want to pay the money back, posting on his social media site in August that doing so would be 1929 all over again, a GREAT DEPRESSION!
I would anticipate that if the administration did lose, they would turn around and start arguing why it would be impossible to give refunds to everybody, said Brent Skorup, legal fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. I think there will a lot of litigation about the nature of refunds and whos entitled one. And I expect the administration will raise all sorts of objections.”
To make sure they can successfully claim refunds, said Barnes & Thornburg partner Clinton Yu, importers really need to have their records in order.
Adding to the uncertainty is the chaotic way that Trump has rolled out his tariffs announcing and then delaying or altering them, sometimes conjuring up new ones. Occasionally, the administration has decided that importers that have already paid one of his tariffs dont have to pay a different one.
Tariff are paid by importers, who often then try to pass the cost on to their customers through higher prices. But consumers would not have recourse to ask for refunds for the higher prices they had to pay.
Its the importer of record that is legally liable for paying tariffs and duties, Arandia said. They would be the only one to have standing to even get that money back.
Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
AP Writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Josh Boak contributed to this story.
Prepare to pay (even) more for your daily cup of joe: Coffee prices have spiked in recent months, primarily because of global supply issues, though U.S. tariffs are adding some heat to this market.
Coffee futures, the global benchmark for arabica coffee, have risen more than 33% since July and nearly hit a four-month high in late August as traders have become concerned about the prospect of a slump in coffee supplies coming out of major markets like Brazil and Vietnam amid volatile weather in these regions. Conab, Brazils crop forecasting agency, this week slashed the estimate for its 2025 arabica coffee crop by nearly 5% and warned that U.S. tariffs could drive further price gains.
The 50% tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on Brazil took effect last month and put upward pressure on coffee prices, according to an August report from the International Coffee Organization.
Those factors are likely to mean that consumers will have to pay even more to make coffee at home or buy a cup on the go. Ground coffee prices hit a record high of $8.41 per pound in July, up 33% from a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After eggs, coffee experienced the second-highest inflation rate in any category of the consumer price index in July.
The J.M. Smucker Co., which owns Folgers and Café Bustelo, has raised coffee prices twice this year and is likely to do so again this winter as a result of Trumps tariffs, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.
WEATHER VOLATILITY
Tariffs have become a new ingredient in a coffee market thats been roiled by weather volatility in recent years. There have been severe droughts in both Brazil and Vietnam, and these two countries are the worlds top two coffee producers, according to Bernstein analysts.
But there could be some reasons to be optimistic that coffee prices will start to stabilize. Rains in Brazil could allay some of the concerns about the impact of the drought in the South American country, while the outlook from Vietnam has also improved as the country has forecasted a higher crop output for this year.
Price pressures should be easing off in the near term, Danilo Gargiulo, a senior research analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC. Improving weather and capital investment to boost productivity signal lower prices ahead, while the impact of tariffs on Brazilian imports may be somewhat limited for consumers who buy coffee from the major chains, he added.
BRAZIL-U.S. TRADE TALKS
Finally, there could be some hope for changes on the horizon in terms of Brazil-U.S. trade negotiations.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazils president, is convening a virtual meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations next week to discuss Trumps trade policy, according to Bloomberg. The Brazilian president has repeatedly called on Trump to negotiate on trade after Trump imposed the second-highest tariffs on the nation in retaliation for its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. But Lula has also authorized a retaliation process against Trumps tariffs, in an attempt to bring the U.S. president back to the negotiation table.
Spirit Airlines said it is ending service to a dozen U.S. cities, a week after filing for bankruptcy for a second time in less than a year. The first bankruptcy came in November 2024.
The discount carrier flies throughout the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean with an all-Airbus fleet.
The news comes a day after Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., parent company of Spirit Airlines, announced its Chapter 11 filing was approved. That will enable the low-cost airline to keep flights running and the business afloat.
In an open letter to Spirit customers, the company said it will continue to operate and passengers can continue to book flights and use tickets, credits, and loyalty points.
What routes are being canceled?
Spirit Airlines told Fast Company that “as part of our efforts to transform our business and position Spirit for long-term success, we are adjusting our network to focus on our strongest performing markets.”
On October 2, it will discontinue service to Albuquerque, New Mexico; Birmingham, Alabama; Boise, Idaho; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Oakland, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Diego, California; and San Jose, California, the airline confirmed to Fast Company.
Spirit Airlines financials
On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it had begun the process of delisting the company, which trades under the ticker symbol FLYY, effectively suspending trading.
Spirit Airlines reported a Q2 2025 net loss of $245.8 million with revenue down 20%, leading to “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue to operate.
