 And there is a major historic labor rights news in the United States as the U.S. Supreme Court has finally handed down a long-expected opinion likely to financially decimate public sector unions and place their long-term survival in real doubt. The five-before ruling in the case Janus v. AFSCME effectively bars public sector unions from collecting so-called agency fees or fair share fees. These are fees unions are currently allowed to charge workers who the union represents in collective bargaining and who receive benefits from the contracts the union negotiates but are not union members. As the New York Times was reported the ruling is a result of a long-term effort by right-wing political moguls, most specifically Richard Olliam, founder of Uline Shipping Company as the primary donor to the Liberty Justice Center which pursued the plaintiff's case. In her dissent Justice Elena Kagan criticized the ruling's foundation in an expansive interpretation of the first amendment for that reason labor law experts say Janus could be cited to challenge almost any other labor rights law. As reported yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a ruling that American express vendors may not encourage their customers to favor competing credit cards using discounts and promotions. The case Ohio v. American Express could have major consequences for retail and perhaps others here to break it down as a CEO of Stock Swoosh, Melissa Armo. Melissa thanks for always being with us we really appreciate it. Let's start with the lay of the land. American Express charges higher fees I mean most of us know that those swipe fees and their vendors oh they hate that they hate that a lot and and so the the companies out there are now you know in this sort of battle sort of a credit card you know war. First of all why does American Express you know charge a higher rate than some of the other credit card companies do they have a different business model Melissa. They do a different business model but it's mainly based on exclusivity they're trying to cater and say American Express is special you get all these rewards if you open up a car with American Express you have to have a higher credit rating if you're able to get a car with American Express some American Express cards actually are charged cards are not credit cards where you have an unlimited line so American Express they're gearing towards consumers was special special special and I'm sure maybe you've heard of the black American Express card too so it's very different from Mastercard Visa or Discover so that's trying to get consumers as far as merchants go as you know I own my own company I accept American Express and I guess I pay a higher fee now why do merchants pay a higher fee with American Express because one of the biggest reasons that all of these credit card companies charge fees to merchants like me to run clients transactions for example if you came to me as a client the reason is because of fraud the reason is fraud one of the reasons that all of these fees are so high and the difference is vaguely only about 1% so for example if you come and you trick you have a transaction that costs $10,000 your fees gonna be 3% which is $300 which the merchant which is me which will pay if you go to Visa it could be around 2% which is $200 it's not an extraordinary amount of difference to be honest with you if I'm a merchant and I am and I am and I want you to come to me as a client that I'm gonna accept American Express or as a merchant I can say I don't want to pay American Express its fees but then I'm limiting myself to the people that will come to me because some people love American Express and one of the reasons is they like the rewards they like the service American Express gives special service supposedly to their clients and so they have a different business model it's about service service service and all these special rewards and things so it's very different from even some company like Discover for example to but the fees are there because of fraud that's the reason that credit card fees are so high and by the way that is also why we pay so much interest if you don't pay your credit card off and full by the end of the month you pay interest that interest rate could be 5% 10% 20% 30% and the reason again is fraud as well besides the fact you're borrowing the money so that's why everyone pays interest rates with cards and you can go to American Express and you're gonna pay a different interest rate than you would with visa or mastercard and a lot of that is set by the banks based on your credit score and things like that so people can go where they want this case to me I I'm really not surprised to be honest with you by the decision I even though I'm a merchant and I pay American Express fees I think it's a proper decision for consumers and and it just is what it is this is the banking environment was a free market let me ask because we only have a little bit of time left but what how might this really impact Silicon Valley and the tech sector that wasn't something that immediately stuck out when we first looked at this news I don't think it's going to affect it at all I did read some articles where they were they were talking about it because there's been a lot of scrutiny about what's happened in tech in the last six to 12 months and I don't think the scrutiny with tech is over especially with the privacy concerns with Facebook that but that's completely different than what's happening here even though they take money for advertising and even though they have people's information that's more about privacy not necessarily about fees or consumer banking laws so it's very different to me I know that people are saying it's similar and this is good for tech as far as the decision goes but I think the scrutiny is going to stay on top of tech I think Congress may look at that at some point in the future because of the privacy rulings not necessarily about as far as a free market and again this decision was for a free market and I think that's good that's good for capitalism if you if you live in the United States of America Melissa we thank you for being with us I can vouch for the American Express customer service it's great and I did see that black card one time when you showed it to me Melissa Armo the CEO of the stocks was thanks Melissa appreciate your time thanks thanks