Good morning!
Editor’s Note: I’ll be in St. Louis Tuesday to help facilitate the Great Game Conference’s CEO Summit. Let me know if you’ll be there, too!
Here are today’s highlights:
In some cases, President Trump’s new tariffs may be having their intended effect.
Could AI agents replace real estate agents?
California is weighing a ban on personalized pricing.
A private equity firm bought one of the most desirable apartment complexes in New York State. You’ll never guess what happened next.
THE TRADE WARS
Canadian small businesses are in panic mode: “The Canadian economy as a whole is projected to withstand the new tariffs of 50 percent on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, or about 5 percent of Canada’s U.S.-bound exports. But many small and medium-size Canadian business owners are expected to bear the brunt of the pain, and some fear they could be put out of business without a resolution to the trade spat. ‘The impact is very grave,’ said Dan Kelly, head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. ‘If your product is on that list, you’re in panic mode right now, trying to sort out what you’re going to do because this is not a small tariff.’”
“In a CFIB survey released this month, 40 percent of exporters reported that they sold products targeted by the tariffs. Of them, nearly 80 percent said they expected revenue losses if the tariffs were imposed.”
“In the prairie province of Alberta, Lorne Prins fears the tariffs could send honey prices ‘into a freefall.’ Canada’s agriculture department estimates that 56 percent of Canada’s total honey exports by volume in 2025 were shipped to the U.S. ‘The worst-case scenario is actually very ugly,’ said Prins, who co-founded the Gull Lake Honey Company in 2018 after a career in oil and gas.”
“The tariff roller-coaster of the past year-and-a-half or so has weighed on Canada’s economy. The country logged five consecutive quarters of decline in business investment, with executives unsure about moving forward with hiring and investment plans given the prospect of losing preferred access to the world’s largest market and their largest trading partner.” READ MORE
