🤯 Tariffs Are Making It Impossible For Businesses To Plan For Anything These Days

In today’s newsletter tariffs are making it impossible for businesses to plan for anything these days, the 30-year fixed mortgage surged to 7.1% on Friday, April 11, 2025, Microsoft signed an agreement with CO280 to capture carbon, Lorne Michaels is bringing SNL to London, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink sees a future with the market tokenization of assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate, and Inter Miami FC and Lionel Messi are nearing an agreement for a contract extension.

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🤯 Tariffs Are Making It Impossible For Businesses To Plan For Anything These Days

Tariffs are looming large over Apple's financial future, threatening to inflate the cost of American’s favorite iPhones. If President Trump didn’t issue an exemption on phones, computers, and chips, the existing 145% tariffs on Chinese goods would have sent the price of an iPhone 16 Pro Max soaring from $1,599 dollars to a staggering $3,917.55 dollars.

If Apple were to decide to shift the manufacturing of their iPhones to the United States, it  wouldn't be a simple fix. By factoring in American labor, some estimates suggest a "Made in USA" tag on an iPhone could cost consumers around $3,500. 

All of this tariff-induced uncertainty, plus the stock market downturn, have contributed to a significant drop in Apple's market capitalization from a market cap of around $3.92 trillion dollars as of December 2024 before all the talk of tariffs. Since then Apple’s valuation has dropped 24% from its high to approximately $2.98 trillion as of Friday, April 11, 2025. Microsoft even briefly reclaimed the title of the world's most valuable company, with a valuation of Microsoft's $2.635 trillion, before Apple gained in late trading on Friday.

Announcing tariffs and economic policies by “truths” on President Trump’s Truth Social platform is no way to instill confidence in the economy, or reassure nervous businesses so that they can make informed decisions. Until we have clear economic policies that don’t change every 5-minutes then business will continue to be paralyzed in their decision making, and the markets will continue to gyrate up-and-down at the whims of the President’s changing moods.

🏦 Business

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage surged on Friday, April 11, 2025 to 7.1%, marking the highest level since February. This spike was attributed to the bond market reacting negatively to the White House's tariff plans, which sent bond prices tumbling and yields soaring. Not helping things, consumer sentiment reports indicated a rise in inflation expectations from 5% in March to a frightening 6.7% in April, which spooked investors even more. This increase marks the highest level since 1981, and comes amid a broader decline in consumer confidence.

So if you were hoping to buy a house anytime soon you probably can’t afford to anymore. Good times.

🍿 Entertainment

Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live”, is adapting the 50 year old hit show and bringing it to the U.K. in 2026 as “Live from London” on the Sky television network. This new TV show venture marks the first time the show will be produced outside of the United States, with Michaels executive producing both the U.S. and U.K. versions.

The British rendition will follow the familiar format of live, late-night comedy featuring a rotating cast of British comedians, celebrity hosts, and musical guests. The show will be produced by Lorne Michaels' production company Broadway Video, which is known for producing not only SNL, but also hits like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “30 Rock”.

As long as they have a British version of Weekend Update then I’m watching!

🪨 Tech

Microsoft has signed a 12-year carbon removal agreement with CO280, a startup focused on capturing emissions from pulp and paper mills. In the agreement Microsoft is committing to purchasing 3.685 million metric tons of carbon removal. While the exact financial details of the deal remain undisclosed, it's understood to be a substantial investment by Microsoft as part of its broader goal to become carbon negative by 2030.

The carbon capture and storage market was valued at $8.8 billion dollars as of 2024 and is expected to reach around $45 billion dollars by 2034, growing at 16.7% CAGR through 2034.

CO280 will retrofit existing paper mills with carbon capture and storage technology, aiming to tap into the large biogenic CO2 emissions of the industry. Microsoft's investment is expected to drive capital into logging communities and help create jobs.

🪙 Crypto

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has rubbed his crystal ball and sees a future with the market tokenization of assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate, which could revolutionize trading by cutting transaction times and freeing up billions of dollars from settlement delays.

Now if only someone could figure out how to create the equivalent of a “digital deed” to prove ownership and assure people that their assets are safe.

The stablecoin market, which is a fancy way of referring to the tokenization of assets, has a total market cap of around $233.69 billion dollars. This includes various stablecoins, with Tether (USDT) dominating the market with over $144 billion dollars, and USD Coin (USDC) with over $60 billion dollars.

⚽ Sports

Inter Miami FC and Lionel Messi are nearing an agreement for a contract extension that would keep the Argentinian soccer star with the MLS club through the 2026 season. This contract extension would see Lionel Messi leading the team into their new Miami Freedom Park stadium when it opens in early 2026.

While the exact financial terms are still being finalized, Lionel Messi currently earns a guaranteed compensation of over $20 million dollars annually from Inter Miami FC, making him the highest-paid player in the league. His arrival in 2023 has significantly boosted Inter Miami FC's financial standing, with the club's valuation reportedly increasing to north of $1.2 billion, with projected revenues exceeding $200 million dollars.

It sounds like playing in sunny Miami for a king's ransom might be too tough of an offer to refuse. Who would have thought?

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.