| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a cocaine bear of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Humanity's greatest asset, and its greatest liability, might be its capacity to ignore terrible situations for long periods of time. This has helped us conquer the planet but also keeps us from addressing things like slavery or climate change until it is way too late. This applies to less-existential issues, too: everything from the five-day workweek to the fact that it took 35 years to finally make "Cocaine Bear" (content warning for cursing, gore, cocaine use by a bear). Then there is the US Congress. There are many enduringly terrible things about it. But one of the most obvious, and most easily addressable, is the fact that lawmakers have the opportunity to do insider trading and flaunt conflicts of interest right in our faces. When lawmakers profit on industries they oversee, or on national tragedies such as terrorist attacks and pandemics, that hurts democracy, which as you may have noticed hasn't been having its best decade. A while back, Congress did make a "law," the Stock Act, warning itself it will be really disappointed in itself if it sees itself pulling any such shenanigans around here and telling lawmakers to report their trades. But violations have resulted in precisely as many criminal prosecutions as you would expect (zero). Enough is enough, Bloomberg's editorial board writes: It's long past time for a hard ban on any stock trading by members of Congress. If these people must own stocks, then they should be in a blind trust while in office. You might think this would make it harder to attract quality candidates, to which I would counter: Marjorie Taylor Greene. If even Nancy Pelosi, one of Congress's biggest stock-market beneficiaries, is now on board with real reform, then this might finally happen. Cocaine Bear waited 35 years. We shouldn't have to. As if Xi Jinping didn't have enough reminders of 1989 to worry him, the death of one of his predecessors adds to the parallels. Former president Jiang Xemin died today, in what Clara Ferreira Marques writes is an eerie echo of the 1989 death of Hu Yaobang, which gave protesters an excuse to gather in public. Xi's harsh Covid lockdowns have cranked up public unhappiness to levels not seen since Tiananmen Square. And though Beijing has so far managed to keep the unrest to a minimum, Jiang's death could mark a turning point. It's not as if Jiang is exactly a natural figure around which to build a revolution, Matthew Brooker writes; post-Tiananmen, he offered China the devil's bargain of trading political freedom for economic abundance, after all. But his death will remind everybody that, however bad that bargain was, Xi keeps breaking it. Bonus China Reading: Chinese censorship-by-spamming is giving Elon Musk a crash course in content moderation. — Tim Culpan Today was a big day for Team Soft Landing. Job openings shrank a bit. Jay Powell suggested the Fed would bludgeon the economy a little less aggressively next month. Euro-zone inflation might have peaked, writes Marcus Ashworth. Stocks jumped. Even cotton prices have gotten cheap in a hurry, as Javier Blas notes.  Chart by Jessica Karl All of this might sound like good news, but apparently not to Narayana Kocherlakota. The former Fed official argues the best thing for the economy right now would be a little bit of stagflation, because higher unemployment now would bring inflation down faster in the long run, avoiding even higher unemployment in the future. Got it? I might need the bear to give me more cocaine. Bonus Central-Banking Reading: Central bankers shouldn't be forced to carry economies all by themselves. — Conor Sen While we're on the good news, Andrea Felsted points out protests in China shouldn't hit supply chains too hard, partly because retailers already have way too much supply. The wild history of the Iraqi dinar could give us a hint about crypto's future, writes Lionel Laurent. Anti-woke Republicans will continue to be frustrated by corporate America's climate efforts. — Liam Denning Two fast books about Boris Johnson and Liz Truss make clear how broken the UK's political system is. — Adrian Wooldridge Iran's soccer team needs protection from Iran's regime. — Bobby Ghosh The blockbuster new Alzheimer's drug is really just a promising start. — Lisa Jarvis The IRS gave Donald Trump's tax returns to Congress. Banks are cooking up ways to identify mass shooters. Reed Hastings called Elon Musk the "bravest and most creative person" alive. RIP, Christine McVie. Mariah Carey is alleged to have used a teleprompter to sing her biggest hit. (h/t Ellen Kominers) "Empty" toner cartridges may really be half-full. Area biotech firm uses tiny worms to test for cancer. Viral snow leopard photos are fake. Notes: Please send toner cartridges 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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