| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a novel trade philosophy of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. On Sundays, we look at the major themes of the week past and how they will define the week ahead. Sign up for the daily newsletter here. What's America's lowest-energy holiday of the year? Obviously not New Year's, with a restart to make, champagne to intake and resolutions to break. Not MLK or Presidents' Days, when you celebrate breaking those resolutions. Not Memorial Day, what with grillin' and chillin' and summer comin'. Not Juneteenth, with its hot links and red drinks and plenty of summer ahead. Not Independence Day because, well, more grillin', more chillin' and still plenty of summer ahead. Not Columbus Day, with all the protests and counterprotests and counter-counterprotests. Not Veterans' Day, because nobody really remembers it. [1] Not Thanksgiving, because football counters the tryptophan. [2] And not Christmas, because the damn kids are running all over the place. Which leaves us with tomorrow, Labor Day. It's the low-energy loser not because organized labor and child labor and industrial labor are pretty much relics of an American past. Rather, it's the obvious: Summer is over, days are shorter, school is back, Trapper Keepers are half price, [3] and our most put-upon workers — fast food, retail, grocery, etc. — are extra busy because the rest of us are shopping away our post-summer blues. But you might want to be frugal tomorrow: It turns out that even low energy is getting more and more expensive. "Plug prices are the new pump prices for economic anxiety, and they feature in state elections already," Liam Denning tells us. "US presidents are traditionally, and usually wrongly, blamed for higher gasoline prices. Electricity is more complicated, mixing regulated and market prices that are subject to state and regional forces. Ironically, Trump can be directly blamed in this case."  There will be a partisan divide on that of course. Yet there is a scapegoat Democrats, Republicans, socialists, libertarians and especially Luddites can all gleefully agree on: Big Tech, with its voracious AI data centers. "They should be required to effectively bring their own power, committing to long-term power purchase agreements to support new plants, not just signing contracts for existing capacity," Liam adds in a separate column. "That new capacity would increase the grid's resilience overall, shifting data centers from being a challenge to being part of the solution. In return, such plants could be given priority in terms of permitting and interconnection." Hmm, if only there was some way we could generate vast amounts of power without carbon emissions or dependency on fickle Mother Nature. Through, say, splitting some atoms. "Nuclear power, long derided as too expensive and too dangerous, is having a bit of a comeback, thanks in part to a new generation of influencers who have embraced the atom (seemingly, without question)," Stephen Mihm writes. He also points out that Isabelle Boemeke and her fellow fission fashionistas on TikTok are simply following in the footsteps of a blonde housewife, a WWII hero and a sandwich-crazy proto-influencer: Wow. Just Wow. Mark Gongloff s till has faith in renewables, as do investors worldwide — to the tune of a record $387 billion so far this year. "Trump wasted no time in trying to eradicate clean energy root and branch, slashing not only incentives but also any regulations that might motivate switching from fossil fuels. For good measure, he also upended global supply chains and business models with a novel trade philosophy that could be described as 'chimp with an AK-4,' " Mark writes. "Trump's shortsighted assault on these emerging technologies at a time of booming electricity demand not only threatens to raise electric bills for Americans, it's also handing geopolitical rival China the keys to the energy future." China's kicking the West's butt on something else as well: Fahrvergnügen! "For a beaten-down European car industry, the news that Xiaomi Corp. is on its way must feel like a death knell. With the looks of a Porsche Panamera at the price of a Toyota Camry, it's earned rave reviews," David Fickling writes. "Western automakers' post-pandemic strategy of selling a smaller number of more costly, profitable internal combustion engine cars has been disastrous." Never heard of Xiaomi? Well, you should have. Its market cap is often bigger than that of Volkswagen. Of BMW. Of Mercedes-Benz. COMBINED!!  Things aren't looking any better on the right side of the Channel. "Britain just can't seem to break out of its rut of subpar economic growth, and address challenges such as inadequate housing and energy supply, without overcoming this syndrome of bureaucracy and inertia," writes Matthew Brooker. "The great and enduring advantage of the democratic system is its open-endedness and ability to adapt. We are again at an inflection point that demands a change of direction. China, for all its economic challenges and difficulties, isn't standing still. Failure to heed the warning signs may mean the US and its allies ceding the technological race and global influence." America is seeing electricity prices rise. Europe is seeing its automakers' demise. But as low as our energy dips, we can take solace in one thing: There will always be an England. Bonus Artificial Energy Reading: What's the World Got in Store ? - Shanghai Cooperation summit, Aug. 31: Why the Russia-India-China Reboot Won't Last — Karishma Vaswani
- US jobs data, Sept. 5: Why Boomers Have More Money Than Everyone Else — Allison Schrager
- Reform UK conference, Sept. 5: Britain's Restive Patriots Put Out More Flags — Matthew Brooker
Who would have thought FD Flam was a Pink Floyd fan? She picked a pretty apt song to quote from for her Labor Day column: "You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today/And then one day you find ten years have got behind you." [4] "It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the start of summer, with autumn still months away in our minds. So, why does it feel like time is moving faster than it used to?" she asks. "Scientists may be getting closer to an answer. A team of researchers recently identified a mechanism within the brain that seems to organize how we perceive and remember the passage of time." The problem? We tend to forget we're animals. "Brains didn't evolve to track and record time with precision, such as days and weeks, but rather to process it in ways that benefited our ancestors' survival," FD explains. "They've observed that animals also are sensitive to time — showing frustration if they're made to wait too long for a treat. For most, the time between hunger and starvation is short. Time literally is life." And yet, we spend so many of our days killing it. Note: Please send Fahrvergnügen and feedback to Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net |
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