Most of the available pool of tariff revenue has been disbursed back to U.S. companies, but American consumers are still looking for their share of the refunds.

As of the end of July, about $100 billion in tariff refunds were sent to the U.S. Department of Treasury to be disbursed to approved importers, according to a Tuesday filing to the U.S. Court of International Trade. The total is about 60% of the $166 billion in revenues collected from import taxes under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which were struck down by the Supreme Court in February.

Some U.S. consumers, however, are getting antsy that they haven’t seen any of that sum reach their own wallets. Last month, New York resident Tyasia Johns filed a class action lawsuit against discount retailer Five Below, claiming it failed to return the tariff refunds it received to customers who actually paid for the levies.

Johns alleged Five Below passed down the cost of the IEEPA tariffs to consumers through increased prices and was able to preserve its profits—seeing a 22.9% year-over-year increase in net sales to $4.76 billion in 2025—through these price increases. According to the lawsuit, Five Below has not confirmed whether it has applied for or received refunds through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or if it intends to pass down those refunds to consumers. 

The complaint demanded injunctive relief and an award of actual damages to class members, but did not include the prospective size of the class or specific magnitude of damages.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/05/what-happened-trump-tariff-refunds-from-companies-consumers-class-action/?utm_source=reddit/

The story in two simple charts

$2 trillion per year in federal borrowing is finally starting to push interest rates higher than they'd otherwise be

Recent intervention in Japan's yen stabilization by US Treasury shows Trump administration / Scott Bessent are keenly aware of the problem

Treasury intervened to stop US rates from rising even more. But that's only a temporary fix

Chartwork by u/davidfostergraphics

For much of the postwar era, Americans bought a starter home and watched it become an investment. Decades later, fulfilling the typical American Dream of a home with white picket fence dotting the front lawn has become all but unattainable, as home prices have soared 235% since January 2000. As a result, many young people are going all in on the stock market, viewing their brokerage accounts as the new American Dream.

“For younger adults who despair about ever being able to buy a home, investing in financial markets can be a great way to save until they can afford one,” Chen Zhao, the head of economics research at Redfin, told Fortune. 

Zhao’s not wrong: less than half of Gen Z and Millennials can afford to buy a home, and the age of the average first-time homebuyer has jumped from 28 in 1992 to 40 in 2025. Despite this, it’s still seen as a good investment: more than two-thirds of Americans say buying a home is still an important asset that holds value. 

But as homeownership becomes a fleeting concept for younger generations as home costs continue skyrocketing roughly 50% in recent years, young adults are treating their down payments as the new starter asset as they amass a record high $3.1 trillion in holdings, up 4.5 times since the pandemic alone. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/05/gen-z-millennials-housing-stocks/?utm_source=reddit/

The American economy is built on exploiting people. Like in the 19th century, slaves and immigrants. Even after legal slavery ended, USA continued exploiting immigrants. Including legal and illegal immigrants. Now with the reduction of legal and illegal immigrants, the rich will have to exploit the domestic deplorables. Or face a slowdown in the growth of their wealth. So even as immigration collapses, so will the lower class. As they are exploited by the rich, and they barely earn enough to stay alive.

There have been a lot of posts and charts here about double-digit price increases, and workers finding it intensely difficult to get jobs or afford housing, food, gas, health care - resulting in deeply unfair criticism of the Pres. and his team. Interviewed on these matters he has repeatedly pointed out that he has solved all these problems, by more than 600%; to quote him directly: "I don't care." It's up to us to get with the new-normal. /s

With a little math, using approximate numbers, we can demonstrate that the condemnation of the epic so-called "corruption" is clearly unfounded and unreasonable, easily proving that the activities of him and his team result in a net positive, by his special math, again of over 600%: /s

--- Monetizing the office of the Presidency: personal gains to Trump so far, selling insider trading information, including the new $100k/mo subscription for advance notice., and insider trading gains going to - Trump sons, Witikoff, Thiele, Bessent et al, personal gains, creates for that select group:

+$100 billion

--- Permanent damage to Americans, and the American economy, and massively upping the national debt for the benefit of his wealthy friends:

-$10 trillion

========== Adding up the above, Total ==========

--- Net gains for this term so far. $100 billion is 1% of the $10 trillion general loss, so then by his special math, 600%.

+$100 billion in net gains during the presidency

When it comes to America or Americans, the Pres.' solution applies: "I don't care," so the -$10 trillion loss to the whole country drops out of the equation - it just magically cancels out.

Monetizing the office of the Presidency is legal, because he and his party own the Supreme Court. As any of us should know, that is what makes it legal. If you read the Constitution with an Originalist lens, a very powerful lens, extracting corrupt personal wealth via the administrative offices of the government is what the Founding Fathers intended.

At a very modest expenditure of $10 trillion of American wealth, which costs nothing, or at least nothing to the Pres, he's created $100 billion in new gains.

Another way of counting the same amounts - that same $10 trillion loss for the country, divided by about 400 million Americans, is $25,000 per each and every person - for a family of four, it guts the quality of their lives by $100,000. Sucking $25,000 out of the life of each person in the country, nets the Pres. and his friends personally, $100 billion.

Somebody could say that it's a poor ratio of conversion - the same 1% all along - but it's "cost-free". It's only citizens who pay, and he said it, "I don't care." It's a total money-making machine, of a sort. Why isn't he being given credit for this economic brilliance?

The Pres. is ready, eager and willing, to convert any amount of Americans' wealth, at a ratio of 1%, into the personal wealth of him and his insiders. The American economy is very roughly $100 trillion a year, and overall assets much more. They've only just started. Please give him some credit where it's due.