Bloomberg Businessweek

The US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, undercutting his signature economic policy and delivering his biggest legal defeat since he returned to the White House.

Voting 6-3, the court said Trump exceeded his authority by invoking a federal emergency-powers law to impose his “reciprocal” tariffs across the globe as well as targeted import taxes the administration says address fentanyl trafficking.

The justices didn’t address the extent to which importers are entitled to refunds, leaving it to a lower court to sort out those issues. If fully allowed, refunds could total as much as $170 billion - more than half the total revenue Trump’s tariffs have brought in.

For instant reaction and analysis, Bloomberg Intelligence co-hosts Paul Sweeney and Scarlet Fu, o speak with:

- Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall
- Bloomberg Legal Analyst and host of Bloomberg Law June Grasso
- Henrietta Treyz, Managing Partner and Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners
- Dave Townsend, Partner with Dorsey & Whitney
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For a few brief, shining moments, the dream of Milton Friedman must have seemed closer to reality in corporate America than ever before. Donald Trump had been reelected president, and the tax cuts and regulatory loosening he’d promised were on the horizon. Whatever leverage ordinary workers had managed to scrape together in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic had mostly been quashed, and surely the incoming administration would take care of what remained. Gone, too, were the days when executives would have to evince corporate disapproval of racism or sexism or homophobia if they didn’t feel like it, as many of them had been goaded into doing during #MeToo or the Black Lives Matter movement. They could get out of talking about politics—which is not quite the same as getting out of politics, period—and get back to maximizing shareholder value however they pleased..
Bloomberg Businessweek Senior Reporter Amanda Mull discusses how corporations have largely avoided criticizing Trump, with some leaders only speaking out after extreme circumstances, such as the killing of a Minnesota man by CBP agents, and even then their statements have been muted and avoided direct condemnation.
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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
At least one structured note tied to Blue Owl Capital Inc. is being quoted at just 47 cents on the dollar after the asset manager restricted withdrawals from one of its retail-focused private funds.
The security, which was issued by a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., is due later this year. Another 2028 note that was offered by a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. is quoted at about 68 cents, while a Bank of Nova Scotia instrument partly tied to Blue Owl was at 87 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Structured notes are bonds with embedded derivatives, giving holders exposure to a number of assets, from stock prices to currencies and interest rates. There’s generally no secondary market for those bonds, with prices only coming from the banks that arranged them.
Blue Owl’s stock fell as much as 9.4% in New York on Thursday. The notes were already quoted below face value prior to the announcement about the withdrawal restrictions.The depressed prices underscore the pressure on Blue Owl, whose stock has already fallen by about a quarter this year.
The plan to limit withdrawals signaled a reversal from a previous arrangement to resume redemptions this quarter.
Today's show features:
Olivia Fishlow, Bloomberg News Leveraged Finance Reporter, on Blue Owl Drops as Redemption Halt Stirs Private Credit Concern
Dylan Field, Figma CEO, on earnings and collaboration with Anthropic
Kate Gulliver, Chief Financial Officer of Wayfair, on quarterly earnings and the health of the American consumer
Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz, co-producers & co-directors of ‘Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media, on Mark Zuckerberg’s Day in Social Media Addiction Trial
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Jeff Vaughn, a former CBS anchor, says a 2022 billboard convinced him that being White and male was becoming a liability, and he sued CBS in 2024 after being fired in 2023. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is urging White men to come forward with complaints about their treatment by employers looking to diversify their workforces, with EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas saying that anti-discrimination laws apply equally to everyone.
Jeff Green, Bloomberg News Managing Diversity Reporter, writes how white men who sue their employers over perceived discrimination may face career damage, with experts saying that bringing a lawsuit can make it difficult to find a new job, as potential employers can discover the lawsuit with a basic Google search.
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The people, companies and trends shaping the global economy.
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
Federal Reserve officials signaled renewed worries over inflation with “several” policymakers suggesting the central bank may need to raise interest rates if inflation stays above their goal.
“Several participants indicated that they would have supported a two-sided description of the committee’s future interest-rate decisions, reflecting the possibility that upward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate could be appropriate if inflation remains at above-target levels,” a record of the central bank’s January meeting showed.
Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 27-28 meeting released Wednesday also revealed that a “vast majority of participants judged that downside risks to employment had moderated in recent months while the risk of more persistent inflation remained.”

The FOMC voted 10-2 at the meeting to hold the benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 3.5%-3.75%. Governors Christopher Waller and Stephen Miran dissented in favor of a quarter-point reduction. Officials dropped language pointing to increased downside risks to employment that had appeared in the three previous statements.
The minutes further signaled that one group of policymakers was embracing a view less open to additional rate cuts, at least in the near term.
Today's show features:
Michael McKee, Bloomberg TV and Radio International Economics & Policy Correspondent, on the latest FOMC minutes
Mike Wilson, Chief US Equity Strategist and Chief Investment Officer for Morgan Stanley, and Bloomberg News Equities Reporter Alexandra Semenova
Kamini Lane, President and CEO of Coldwell Banker Realty, on latest US Housing data
Bloomberg News Senior Technology Reporter Kurt Wagner on the Social Media Addiction trial
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