| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a trip to the moon with Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Because we're talking about Elon Musk, there is a non-zero chance his reported June 2 email about having a "super bad feeling" about the economy was just a subtle homage to the fictional June 3 birthday of "McLovin," the fake name on a fake ID in the 2007 comedy "Superbad." To be sure, Musk isn't alone in expressing angst about the economy. Jamie Dimon, whose existence is far less meme-based than Musk's, has said an economic "hurricane" is coming. At the same time, we should know by now to take everything Musk says with a warehouse full of salt and a careful study of the context. Liam Denning points out Tesla has more than enough idiosyncratic problems to give Musk a super-bad feeling, from too much payroll to slowing auto sales to market meltdowns hurting demand for luxury cars to [waves hand generally at China] all of China grinding to a halt. And let's not even get into the whole Twitter thing. Or phantom braking. A previous Musk email, ordering workers to get back to the office or find other jobs, now looks more like a clumsy effort to hit a reported 10% staff-reduction target without paying severance. It's also kind of an incongruous day to start freaking out about the economy, with a report that jobs grew faster than expected in May. Better yet, Jonathan Levin writes, wage growth cooled and people started coming back to the labor force. More of that sort of thing, and the strip on which the Fed must execute a soft landing for the economy gets a little longer. Tesla aside, American industry is still mostly going strong. Maybe it wasn't fair of President Joe Biden to dismiss Musk's concerns by wishing him "lots of luck on his trip to the moon." (It wasn't even that great of a roast, considering it let Musk brag about his NASA contract for a moon launch.) But Conor Sen points out many other companies that make and build things are boosting capacity and adding staff even as consumers recoil from high prices. This could help avoid a super-bad economy — though it could also keep the Fed slamming on the brakes, which is never a super-good feeling. The chart above might be kind of tricky to see in an email, but if you're an American it might be too shameful to read anyway. It shows the US has administered Covid vaccine boosters to just 30% of its population, compared with better than 50% for the UK and other European peers. This failure has many fathers, from Biden's clumsy booster rollout to right-wingers refusing any vaccinations at all. But the end result, Faye Flam writes, is that millions of Americans are not nearly as protected from the Covid variants ripping through the country as they think they are. Boosters may not keep you from getting sick, but they are highly effective at keeping you from getting very sick. If you haven't had a third shot at this point, you're not fully vaccinated. And don't expect paxlovid to be the answer. The Covid treatment is being prescribed left and right these days, and it is proven to help unvaccinated or high-risk patients. But Lisa Jarvis warns we have little evidence yet that it does much good for anybody else. Once more, with feeling: Get boosted. One of the unpleasant features of life in the 21st century is that, just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. Take flying in airplanes. Unless you are independently wealthy or riding on a corporate dime, traveling by plane these days is like mortgaging your house to afford a painful hazing ritual to join a fraternity of people you would avoid if you saw them on the street. And Chris Bryant writes inflation and shortages will soon make the experience even worse, particularly for the British, who will get an extra helping of this misery thanks to Brexit. Looks like it'll be another year of drawing a bath and pretending it's Mallorca. Industrial-sector CEOs are churning jobs more rapidly these days, and Brooke Sutherland suggests that could be pushing them to make deals while the sun shines. European inflation is out of control, and the ECB must join the rest of the world in fighting it. — Bloomberg's editorial board Forcing Russia to default will humiliate Putin, but winning the war will take cutting off oil and gas revenue. — Bloomberg's editorial board Narendra Modi keeps making incomprehensible trade policies that hurt the world's trust in India. — Mihir Sharma Biden's gun speech probably changed nothing, but it was marginally better to give it than not. — Jonathan Bernstein The Scotus leaker should come forward to spare the institution a damaging investigation. — Stephen Carter Covid is deadlier for children than the flu. Ron DeSantis vetoed money for the Tampa Bay Rays after the team tweeted about guns. How Len Blavatnik ring-fenced his billions from Russia. Pesticides have changed how cockroaches have sex. (h/t Alistair Lowe) New 3-D printing uses sound waves to build objects. Some brain proteins evolved before animals. What a gas-stove ban will mean for LA restaurants. Notes: Please send cockroaches and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. |
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