Good morning. I’m just popping in to let you know there will not be an edition posted on Friday this week as I will be out of town for the 4th of July. I hope you all enjoy today’s newsletter and your long weekend. Let the festivities begin!

Law

The power of Federal agencies has been slashed

US federal agencies lost a good portion of power due to a landmark Supreme Court ruling. The Justices of the SCOTUS overturned a 40-year-old precedent that will significantly reduce the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they regulate.

In a 6-3 decision, the court repealed one of the most influential and cited decisions in recent memory: the Chevron Doctrine, a 1984 ruling which has become a cornerstone of American law and been cited in over 15,000 cases, according to Bloomberg.

What exactly is the Chevron Doctrine?

Under the terms of what is called the Chevron Deference, which stems from the Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, courts should defer to a “reasonable” interpretation from a federal agency when a law is ambiguous.

The decision gave essentially any department the power to interpret the laws that pertain to its particular field, but with the reversal, courts are no longer required to defer to agencies’ interpretations of vague laws.

All in all: The 17,000 lower court decisions and 70 Supreme Court decisions that have relied on the precedent of the Chevron theory will remain in effect, according to Chief Justice Roberts' majority opinion. However, new legal challenges are likely to arise for federal policies that aren't expressly supported by unclear statutes.

Business

Amazon is launching a Temu and Shein rip-off

The e-commerce site where you can buy anything from dual exhaust tips to a home liposuction kit will soon allow you to buy items for even cheaper. Amazon intends to debut a super cheap, direct-from-China service to compete with Temu and Shein, two increasingly popular China-based discount websites, per the WSJ.

Flourishing competitors

As the company faces growing competition from Chinese-based merchants, it’s doing an Uno reverse and planting more sellers in the country. Clearly, the success of its rivals is nothing to laugh at:

• According to Amazon, the number of products sold by Chinese vendors on its platform increased by more than 20% in 2023, while the proportion of Chinese retailers with sales surpassing $10 million increased by 30%.

• Temu was the most downloaded free app from the Apple Store in the United States on Thursday, with Shein coming in at number seven, per Sensor Tower.

As Amazon faces growing pressure, its looking to change up its strategy and take back the customers its lost to Temu and Shein… by copying them.

Morphing into the enemy

Amazon is gearing up to launch a discount section that will feature Chinese products, most of which are priced under $20, from phone cases, to uber-inexpensive clothing, and pretty much anything else.

In a bid to compete against some of its strongest competitors, Amazon chose to copy and paste their techniques into its own business model, showing the company’s most aggressive response to Temu and Shein to date.

• This comes as Temu and Shein bolstered their presence in the US, increasingly luring in American shoppers with extremely cheap prices and soaring in popularity.

Temu and Shein aren’t the only ones to compete with… The TikTok shop is offering a similar discount offering that starts on July 9th, which Bytedance announced two days after Amazon announced its Prime Day sale (that runs from July 16-17). No ideas are off limits I suppose.

How will it be different than regular Amazon?

Besides the lower prices and getting the items directly from China, shoppers can expect a couple differences:

• The products will be shipped from Chinese warehouses straight to US consumers, which should take anywhere from nine to 11 days.

  • While it is certainly longer than Prime delivery, Temu and Shein’s increasing popularity indicates shoppers don’t mind waiting longer if they don’t have to pay as much.

Since the products are going straight from China to your mailbox instead of stopping at a US warehouse first (which is what usually happens), Amazon can utilize a loophole used by Temu, Shein and other e-commerce companies.

A US statue, called the de minimis exemption, voids import taxes on individual foreign goods under the $800 threshold, and merchants who use Amazon’s new service could benefit from it as well.

Changing tides: While fast shipping as been a staple of Amazon’s business strategy, the dirt cheap prices offered by competitors like Temu and Shein and their growing popularity have caused it to reevaluate.

Nike needs to get back up on its feet

The sole advice I would give them is to ‘Just Do It’. After Nike announced a meager outlook for the rest of the year, the retail giant’s shares dropped over 20%. This marks the largest daily drop in the company’s history and erased around $28 billion in market value.

The footwear company said it expects sales to fall 10% in the current quarter after struggling sales in China, after analysts had predicted just a 3.2% drop. Nike also forecasted its 2025 sales to drop, the opposite of what it had anticipated earlier this year.

What are they doing wrong?

While Nike has been tripping on rocks, analysts say other footwear brands like Hoka and On Running have outperformed them by selling new and innovative products. Nike reverted its efforts into digital sales, leaving Foot Locker behind, but later said might’ve been an oopsie.

The iconic brand has already seen its stock dip over 17% in the last year, and during its most recent fiscal year, reported stagnant sales as well as its weakest yearly sales growth in 14 years (not including the pandemic).

• The company also said its lifestyle division, the Converse line in particular, isn’t doing nearly as well as it should be.

So what’s Nike’s new plan? The company hasn’t released as many new product lines as it would have liked to in the past few years. By releasing more, Nike wants to regain the customers it lost to rival brands, and with the support of new, luxury Jordans, it also seeks to win back Chinese customers.

Grab Bag

Say hello to Denmark’s new cow fart tax

Anything to do with farts I can get behind. Not behind the fart, but like… you know what, nevermind. The Scandinavian country recently proposed a new law that would tax farmers based on how much flatulence (and burps) their cows produce. No, I’m not kidding.

The tax is the first of its kind, as no country has previously imposed a carbon tax on agriculture. Denmark hopes that the implementation of the tax, which still has to be passed by the country’s parliament, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Forgoing free farts

Politico projects that by 2030, livestock will be responsible for 46% of Denmark's emissions, and the nation aims to reduce emissions by 70% by the same year.

• Farmers will pay a tax of 120 Danish kroner (around $17) for every metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent that each cow releases, starting in in 2030.

  • The average annual cost per cow should be around $100, as a normal Danish cow produces 6 metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually.

  • Pigs aren’t exempt from this either, although they produce much less CO2 than cows do.

• Experts estimate that the toot tax might reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1.8 million metric tons.

Although other nations have tried a fart tax… it hasn’t worked. New Zealand tried to impose a burp tax on cows and sheep, which was recently trashed due to widespread protests among farmers. Months ago, farmers in Europe did the same after an agriculture tax was proposed.

Europe should thank American tourists

Europe has had a lot of monetary success lately, and it can thank Steve from Montana for it. Amid a busy summer for the continent, with the Olympics, international concerts, and an influx of other events, one thing has made it more money than anything else: American tourism.

Record numbers

Like most people, you’re probably envious of that one friend who posts an Insta story of them in Mykonos every year, but in 2024, there’s a lot more people to be jealous of.

This summer in particular, a record number of Americans are travelling to Europe, and the continent is expecting to see a historic amount of people gawking at the Pantheon.

Some European countries have still been struggling to rebound post-pandemic, and thanks to a strong dollar, southern Europe is seeing an economic boom thanks to tourism.

• Around $500 billion, or nearly one-third of the EU's total foreign tourism revenue, was earned by Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal in 2023.

• Portugal in particular has had a significant uptick of US visitors, which increased tax revenue in the country's capital city of Lisbon by 20% last year.

On the downside, Lisbon has also seen the cost of living go through the roof, and overcrowding has led to the implementation of anti-tourism taxes in places like Venice, while residents of Spain's Balearic and Canary Islands have protested tourists.

Fast Facts

Synthetic Smile: Researchers at the University of Tokyo created a robot with lab-grown skin that can mimic the way a real human smiles. In case you needed something to dream about tonight.

Debate Debacle: Despite a lackluster first debate, President Joe Biden said he has no plans to be replaced as the democratic candidate amid concerns about his age and calls from prominent Democrats to step down. According to a CBS poll, a record low 27% of registered voters believe Biden is cognitively fit for office.

Survival Situation: A man lost in California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park survived for 10 days by eating berries and drinking water from his boot.

Taco Time: Taco Bell unveiled a value meal that includes (a massive amount) of food for $7, joining McDonald’s and others who are adding value meals.

Pill Problems: The CEO of Walgreens said the pharmaceutical chain will close a substantial portion of its 8,600 stores in the US.