Fight the urge to let your eyes glaze over when you hear “new tariff announcement.” President Trump confirmed yesterday via a Truth Social post that the delayed 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports will go into effect on Tuesday, March 4. He will also slap China with another 10% tariff on top of the existing one.

Earlier this month, Trump issued a temporary pause just hours before the blanket tariffs on Mexico and Canada were set to go into effect. His main concern was border security: In negotiations, Canada agreed to create a “fentanyl czar,” while Mexico sent 10,000 National Guard members to the US–Mexico border to stop undocumented migrants and fentanyl contraband. But the compromise apparently wasn’t enough to quash a full-blown trade war with America’s neighbors.

Update your tariff tracker:

• March 4: 25% on Mexico and Canada imports (Canadian energy products like oil and electricity will only face 10%) will go live. China’s extra 10% duty—on top of the previous 10% Trump imposed on February 4—will go into effect on this day, too.
• March 12: A 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports. The US imports about 80% of its aluminum and 17% of its steel, most of it from Canada.
• April 2: An announcement on Trump’s reciprocal tariff plan is expected. When he first introduced the plan, Trump attacked the European Union and its Value Added Tax (VAT) as an example of countries taking advantage of the US.

Tariffs are already having an impact

Tariffs—and their potential effect on the Canadian economy—are rocking the country’s upcoming election. Before Trump took office, Conservative politician Pierre Poilievre was miles ahead in polls for prime minister, but his endorsement from Trump allies, coupled with the US president’s threats, have soured Canadians on his candidacy and bolstered the Liberal party.

Back in the States...tariffs are rattling business execs. If a deal to prevent them isn’t reached, more than $1 trillion worth of imports would see higher tariffs. Consumer sentiment and markets have both dropped quickly in the wake of Trump’s announcements.—MM

CFPB dropped its lawsuit against Capital One. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which, under the Biden administration, sued Capital One last month for allegedly cheating customers out of ~$2 billion in interest, moved to dismiss the suit yesterday with Donald Trump now in office. The agency also dropped cases against Rocket Homes Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway-owned Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance. The moves were largely expected after Trump’s acting CFPB director, Russell Vought, fired 200 employees and ordered all work to stop immediately. The CFPB also has pending lawsuits against Walmart, Zelle, and other companies it’s accused of wronging US consumers.

Instagram is reportedly considering making Reels a standalone app. The Meta-owned social media company has had discussions to turn its TikTok-esque Reels feature into its own app while TikTok’s future in the US is in flux, according to a report in The Information. It’s part of a larger strategy to help Instagram compete with TikTok, which has included improvements to its recommendations algorithm and attempts to cajole creators with big cash bonuses. It’s unclear if Reels will remain part of the main Instagram app if it’s given its own dedicated platform.

🪧 Grassroots groups are urging an “economic blackout” today. Some Americans are planning a 24-hour boycott of major US retailers today to protest high prices and what they call corporate greed. “No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy,” reads a notice on the website of The People’s Union USA, the grassroots movement behind the blackout. The one-day boycotts may not hurt companies’ bottom lines, but they come as consumer sentiment has plummeted due to persistent inflation and threats of tariffs. The group is planning more targeted boycotts in the coming weeks.—AE

We are one step closer to The Traitors hosted by MrBeast presented by Doritos. The YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is shopping for funding to expand his empire of videos and snacks.

Bloomberg reported that Donaldson is raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a new funding round that values his company, MrBeast LLC, at $5 billion:

• MrBeast LLC owns part or all of various ventures, including Feastables, a brand of chocolate bars, and Lunchly, a lunch kit marketed as a healthier alternative to Lunchables.
• The company is reportedly profitable, bringing in $400 million in sales last year according to anonymous sources.

The upside of investing in MrBeast may lie in his knack for TV production. In addition to his “Squid Game in Real Life” video that has over 750 million views on YouTube, MrBeast created and starred in Beast Games on Amazon Prime Video last year. Despite controversy and a class-action lawsuit, it became the platform’s most-watched unscripted series. Donaldson later said he lost millions on the show—but that’s what the money is for.—CC

There’s a nonzero chance that we’re getting a cameo-heavy remake of the “E.T.” music video: The next Blue Origin space flight this spring will carry a crew of six that includes singer Katy Perry, CBS anchor Gayle King, and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez, Bezos’s rocket company announced yesterday.

This is Blue Origin’s 11th crewed launch and first all-women squad. The other three seats are for Aisha Bowe, a NASA aerospace engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Amanda Nguyen, a research scientist and civil rights activist, and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer.

“I’m so afraid but I’m also so excited,” King said yesterday on CBS Mornings. She initially declined Blue Origin’s invitation but ultimately decided that the ~10-minute trip just beyond Earth’s atmosphere would be a “unique opportunity.” King will be the second morning show host rocketed into space by Bezos after ABC’s Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan, who in 2021 joined Blue Origin’s third crewed flight.

The cost of admission is not listed on Blue Origin’s website—it only says that paying tourists need to make a $150,000 deposit “to begin the order process.” But high-profile guests typically fly free.

Zoom out: To compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, or ~1,400 employees, it announced this month.—ML

In a real-world case study that will be on every Intro to Economics syllabus this fall, rents in Austin, Texas, plunged 22% from their 2023 peak after the city quickened permit processes and scaled back rules on building height, generating an apartment supply surplus, and, thus, lower prices for renters, Bloomberg reported.

Austin’s “If you build it, rents will fall” mantra created ~50,000 new units between 2023 and 2024, marking a 14% increase—the biggest spike in supply of any US city over that time. The median asking rent in ATX is now $1,399, down $400 from the height of the pandemic. Rents have fallen so much that notoriously pricey Austin is no longer the most expensive city in Texas (Dallas-Forth Worth is).—AE

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to the yawn that pops your ears after getting off a plane.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.