| This year, our columnists were inundated with so many questions — from their friends, followers and even their own children — that I thought I'd pull together a list of the best of them. So without further ado … welcome to Bloomberg Opinion's Frequently Asked Questions page! Here you can find answers to some highly topical questions, such as whether the AI boom is the second coming of the dot-com bubble, which is what Dave Lee's inner circle wanted to know. You can also find answers to some less pressing (but no less profound!) queries, such as the one Abby McCloskey's second-grade son posed to her: "What is spelling?" Either way, this page has got you covered. If you don't see your question listed, feel free to contact me. I might not be able to track down that Amazon package that's been "out for delivery" for a fortnight, but I'll do my best to answer your question. Are the US and China headed for war? | Short answer: No, not yet. But if you asked our geopolitical columnists James Stavridis, Karishma Vaswani and Hal Brands what keeps them up at night, it'd likely be the nonstop ding! ding! ding! of messages they get about Taiwan, Washington and Beijing — each note another reminder of how close we are to risking a hot war with China. In 2026, we should be on the lookout for escalations in cybersecurity, trade, aviation, naval construction and South China Sea operations. "History turns on small hinges," says Admiral Stavridis. "We need to watch these five yellow lights … because if they turn red, they could turn out the lamps all over the world." Why isn't anyone stopping ICE? | Once people learn that Noah Feldman is a constitutional law professor, this is the No. 1 question he gets asked, and for good reason. We've all seen the horrors of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown play out on our handheld devices: the parking lot raids, the school protests, the merciless captures and unfair carveouts. Noah called the Supreme Court ruling that allowed ICE to racially profile people "the kind of historically disastrous decision that will delegitimize the court for a generation." When the highest court in the land is unwilling to intervene, it may feel like few options remain. But Noah says "blame doesn't stop with the Supreme Court or the president. Congress has the power to stop ICE from doing what it's doing" — and voters do too. Is it just me, or are celebrities smoking more? | You're definitely not hallucinating. Of all the bad habits that took the internet by storm this year — #SkinnyTok, testosterone maxxing, raw milk — the cigarette renaissance may be the most surprising. In a column I did with Lisa Jarvis and Taylor Tyson, we took stock of the current landscape to illustrate how smoking has quietly slipped back into pop culture. There are many reasons for this, one of which is that Gen Z is very online and very isolated. "For those with social anxiety," we write, "cigarettes — and the small rituals around them, like borrowing a lighter or gathering in designated smoking areas — can provide a built-in excuse to socialize." Or, in the case of Jordan Firstman and Hudson Williams, a built-in excuse to settle some beef. Is Tylenol bad for pregnant people? | This was not a question we had to ask in 2024. Or 2023. Or literally any year before that. But one memorable quote from Trump changed everything: "Nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen. But with Tylenol, don't take it." Flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top officials, Trump connected acetaminophen to autism. "This, despite decades of research showing that the medication is safe. He offered no evidence to the contrary," Lisa Jarvis writes. The Great Tylenol-Gate of 2025 will not be remembered as a serious medical revelation, but a dangerous re-peddling of junk science. If the economy is so great, why do I feel so bad? | In a year punctuated by dozens of days when the S&P 500 surfed to a fresh high, you'd think consumers would be cheerful this holiday season. Instead, " affordability" has been the buzzword of the year. Allison Schrager and Jonathan Levin say consumers are struggling to stay afloat in what Jonathan calls the worst "good economy" in history. "Certain things have made this boom different from all other booms," Allison writes. Inflation, the advent of AI, the introduction of tariffs — all these things contribute to uncertainty, which makes all of us feel worse off. Shuli Ren says the bond market is not seeing one, and neither is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. But John Authers begs to differ. His advice? Just assume it's a bubble, which is what a bunch of our writers — and Michael Burry — did this year. Then the question is not about the existence of a bubble, but when and whether it's going to pop. Dave Lee often hears the argument that the best companies will survive a crash — just as Amazon did after the dot-com bubble. "But it's easy to forget that it took more than eight years for Amazon's stock price to return to its March 1999 pre-crash level," he writes. "If history repeats itself, 2026 might be the hangover investors have been fearing — the onset of a slump that might take an extended period to recover from, even if AI does end up being as transformative as people predict." Why can't I find a job anywhere? | You won't find the answer to this on LinkedIn's annual "wrap," that's for sure. The good news — if you can call it that — is that you are not alone in your jobless woes. Our commentary on the he-cession, the she-cession and the awful employment landscape for Black Americans illustrates just how crummy the job market has become. The bad news, Conor Sen warns, is that 2026 could bring even more turmoil: "Imagine headlines flashing news of 20,000 jobs lost each month from US payrolls. Consumer and investor sentiment would crater and the pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates would be intense. Yet, that's likely the current state of the labor market." How come my kid is failing math? | If you thought fourth-grade fraction work was bad, brace yourself for Algebra 2. The Bloomberg editorial board says the state of K-12 arithmetic is dreadful. Trendy curricula trying to make numbers more fun is one culprit. At the high school level, "math designers" encourage students to share what they "notice and wonder." In elementary school, children use bubbles and fidget pop toys to multiply. "Academics often call such educational approaches 'student-centered,'" the editors write. "Yet they lack scientific rigor and have never produced the promised gains in achievement." What's worse, Stephen Mihm says, that C- on your child's report card might be generous, thanks to grade inflation. Bonus Why-Is-My-Kid-Failing question: Spelling may not be taught in schools much anymore, notes Abby McCloskey, but that doesn't mean you can't do it yourself. Why is chocolate so expensive? | This last one is for Santa Claus! Or, really, my mom, who is obsessed with Terry's Chocolate Oranges, a festive treat that has doubled in price since 2022. Lara Williams has the not-so-sweet scoop on why chocoholics should expect more pain. "Like other important parts of global agriculture, cacao farmers have been struggling for years with problems running from biodiversity loss to personal poverty. Now, they can add frequent extreme weather and the spread of disease and pests to the list," she writes. But don't worry about your stocking stuffers — Lara says there are plenty of real-life Willy Wonkas working on chocolate alternatives that will satisfy your sweet tooth for decades to come. |
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