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Business owners around the world are still reeling from the sky-high, globe-spanning tariffs President Donald Trump has announced since taking office. Last week, Emily Ley became the first to take her concerns to court. In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida last Thursday, lawyers representing Ley, a small business owner in Pensacola, argued that Trumps tariffs on China are unlawful, unconstitutional, and risk having devastating consequences on businesses like Simplified, the 10-employee stationery company Ley founded in 2008. The suit, which is the first known case to challenge Trumps tariffs, has, almost overnight, turned Ley into the very public face of a high stakes legal battle that could have sweeping consequences for the global economy. My company is like my fourth child, Ley tells Fast Company. I’m going to go down swinging if this is the end of it. It was never Leys intention to file a suit. A few weeks ago, as Trumps tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada went into effect, and the White House warned of more to come, Ley simply wanted to give people a better understanding of the tangible impact that rising tariffs would have on a small business like hers, which sells, among other things, day planners that are made in China. I was seeing so much misinformation and misunderstanding about who pays the tariffs, and what they’re for, Ley says. I just felt like I needed to share a small business perspective that came from a real person, a real human. Emily Ley [Photo: Courtesy of Simplified] So she wrote about her experience on Instagram: How since 2017, her company has paid $1.17 million in tariffs on imports from China, how this year, under Trumps increased tariffs, it could be on the hook for $350,000 more, and how those costs have driven prices up for customers and salaries down for employees. I cannot be quiet about this anymore, Ley wrote. Tariffs are killing businesses. The post, which quickly went viral, caught the attention of lawyers at the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a legal group that fights what it views as government overreach. Leys first conversation with the firm led to a zillion more, she says, until finally, last weekjust a day after Trump unveiled a new slew of global tariffs, sending the world economy into freefallNCLA filed the suit on Leys behalf, asking the court to block Trumps tariffs on Chinese goods. Leys case focuses specifically on two executive orders Trump signed in February and March, both of which imposed tariffs on Chinese goods in the name of stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. In the orders, Trump declared the fentanyl crisis a national emergency and cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as his authority to enact the tariffs. But according to the lawsuit, IEEPA doesnt give the president that poweror even mention tariffs at all. Only Congress, NCLA argues, can grant permission to impose tariffs. The president could implement trade embargoes or sanctions under the law, but only if theyre necessary to address the emergency, and Trumps executive orders show no connection between the opioid problem and the tariff he ordered, the complaint reads. While Simplifieds case is focused specifically on the Chinese tariffs, NCLA says a ruling could impact the full scope of global tariffs Trump imposed last week on most countries around the world. We are saying that the statute doesn’t allow the President to impose tariffs no matter what kind of emergency is declared or exists, NCLAs Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione tells Fast Company. In a statement to Fast Company, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said, President Trump has broad authority to impose tariffs to address issues of national emergency, such as the opioid [epidemic]. The Trump Administration looks forward to victory in court. That NCLA is the group bringing the case forward is itself significant. Though the organization describes itself as nonpartisan, it has frequently fought for causes championed by conservatives, including chipping away at the regulatory powers of government agencies, and has in the past received financial support from right-wing financiers, including billionaire Charles Kochs foundation. NCLAs involvement reflects the extent to which opposition to Trumps tariffs cuts across party lines. Ley, for one, who is a registered Democrat, founded Simplified after designing the stationery for her own wedding invitations. What started as a side hustle evolved over the years until, in 2011, she began branching out into designing other merchandise like day planners and calendars. Initially, she manufactured those planners in the U.S. for $38 a unit and sold them on Etsy for $50 each. It wasn’t sustainable, Ley says. So she turned to Chinese manufacturers to build the company. By 2017, business was booming, but the tariffs Trump slapped on Chinese goods in his first term were a blow to the bottom line. It meant that I had to earmark dollars that would have gone to hiring, that would have gone to employee bonuses that could have gone to philanthropic efforts or growth, she says. We absorbed it as much as we could, including by raising prices.But shes not sure the business could sustain another increaseparticularly not one as stark as what Trumps proposing. Simplified is set to receive a new shipment of inventory within weeks, but she has no idea what the tariff bill will look like when it arrives. In the suit, NCLA argues that Trumps actions have inflicted economic and competitive harm on Simplified. Ley may be scared about what lies ahead, but shes hopeful her case inspires other business owners to stand up too. This is the reality of what’s happening, she says. I have written the checks. It is a fact, who’s paying for this. It’s not a political belief.
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E-Commerce
A Minecraft Movie just beat Captain America and Mario at the box office. The new film, inspired by the beloved brick-based video game and starring Jack Black and Jason Mamoa, pulled in $157 million at its domestic box office opening this weekend. Thats more than double analysts early prediction that the film would gross $60 million. Its also well past the record of the previous top opener of 2025, Disneys Captain America: Brave New World, which netted $88.5 million at its opening weekendmeaning A Minecraft Movie has now enjoyed the most successful opening weekend of the year. By video game-to-movie adaptation standards, the Minecraft film is also playing in a league of its own. In 2019, for example, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opened with a $58 million weekend, and, last year, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opened with $60 million at the box office (considered a strong start at the time). The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released in 2023, was the previous record holder for the largest video game adaptation opening weekend of all time, raking in $145 million. By all accounts, A Minecraft Movies debut has been a smashing success. Rocky Horror for Gen Alpha? To some extent, it makes sense that A Minecraft Movie might appeal to wide audiences, given that, as of 2023, it had sold over 300 million copies, making it the second most-sold video game behind only Tetris. Still, even the most optimistic industry analysts capped the films potential box office open earnings at $90 million, and it had a so-so rating of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes before this weekend. One explanation for the films success could be its memeability. Over the weekend, many viewers took to social media to share that younger audiencesparticularly Gen Alphaseemed to be turning the Minecraft movie-viewing experience into an interactive event. Videos of audiences clapping every few minutes, reciting lines aloud, and even throwing popcorn in the air have all gone viral on TikTok, with some viewers even reporting that the police had to be called to their screenings to settle audiences down. I saw Minecraft in the theater with my kids last night and am still processing what I saw, one tweet with 46,000 likes reads. The only cinematic experience I can compare the audience participation to is Rocky Horror, except its with teenagers and their phones and the movie is not even a weekend old. Audiences have particularly taken to one scene in which a baby zombie (one of Minecrafts main monsters) rides a cuboid chicken, causing Blacks character to exclaim, Chicken jockey! Clips of audiences reacting rowdily to the scene made the rounds over the weekend, which, in turn, only attracted more viewers eager to join the trend to theaters. [Image: Warner Bros. Pictures] the minecraft movie is truly one of the worst movies ive ever seen but the universal reaction to ‘chicken jockey’ im seeing made it all worth it, one X user wrote. Another added, The Minecraft Movie is a must watch cultural experience, over a video of audience members giving the chicken jockey scene a standing ovation. Considering that the film has been in theaters for just four days, only time will tell whether A Minecraft Movie becomes the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, or if (in a much more likely scenario) young fans’ outsized reactions are only a passing fad.
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. While homebuyers and home sellers still see headlines about the housing market being a sellers market and national home prices reaching all-time highs, a deeper look reveals that several regional housing markets have shifted, giving homebuyers some power. During the pandemic housing boom, from summer 2020 to spring 2022, the number of active homes for sale in most housing markets plummeted as homebuyer demand quickly absorbed almost everything that came up for sale. Fast-forward to the current housing market, and the places where active inventory has rebounded to 2019 levels (due to strained affordability suppressing buyer demand) are now the very places where homebuyers hold the most power. At the end of March 2025, national active housing inventory for sale was still 20% below March 2019 levels. However, more and more regional markets are surpassing that threshold. This list is growing. In January 2025, 41 of these 200 major markets were back above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. In February 2025, 44 of these markets hit that milestone. Now, 58 of the 200 markets are above pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels and ResiClub expects that count will continue to rise this year. Many of the softest housing markets, where homebuyers have gained leverage, are located in Gulf Coast and Mountain West regions. These areas were among the nations top pandemic boomtowns, having experienced significant home price growth during the pandemic housing boom, which stretched housing fundamentals far beyond local income levels. When pandemic-fueled migration slowed and mortgage rates spiked, markets like Cape Coral, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, faced challenges as they had to rely on local incomes to sustain frothy home prices. The housing market softening in these areas was further accelerated by the abundance of new home supply in the pipeline across the Sun Belt. Builders in these regions are often willing to reduce prices or make other affordability adjustments to maintain sales. These adjustments in the new construction market also create a cooling effect on the resale market, as some buyers who might have opted for an existing home shift their focus to new homes where deals are still available. In contrast, many Northeast and Midwest markets were less reliant on pandemic migration and have less new home construction in progress. With lower exposure to that demand shock, active inventory in these Midwest and Northeast regions has remained relatively tight, keeping the advantage in the hands of home sellers. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 24 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic levels have, generally speaking, experienced stronger home price growth over the past 24 months.
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E-Commerce
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