Today's Agenda  Rebounding Job Market, Hidden Weakness The U.S. labor market is seemingly indestructible, shaking off recession fears with its 105th straight month of growth, a record streak that seems almost too strong to be true. Maybe that's because it kind of is. In the short term, the report that employers added 224,000 jobs last month, more than expected, raises doubts about whether the Fed will cut interest rates at its policy meeting later this month. But the job market's long-term trends aren't as strong as June's numbers would suggest, write Lakshman Achuthan and Anirvan Banerji of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. The year-over-year rate of job growth has slowed lately, and unemployment has fallen (aside from rising a tiny bit in June) mostly because people keep dropping out of the labor market. Meanwhile, all this hiring has done little to increase workers' share of the overall economic pie, writes Karl Smith. A truly strong job market would see wages rising, kids foregoing college and retirement-age workers coming in off the sidelines. That all happened in in the 1990s, Karl writes. None of it is happening now. Let's Recapture the Flag The "Betsy Ross" version of the American flag, the one with 13 stars in a circle where the modern flag has 50 stars, is being torn to shreds in a game of political flag football. White supremacists have adopted it as a symbol of a simpler time when people owned people. So Colin Kaepernick encouraged Nike Inc. to ditch a special shoe featuring that flag, and Nike agreed, and now angry conservatives are burning their Nikes again. All of this, aside from the white supremacy, is fine. But Americans shouldn't ditch the flag just because some racists have adopted it, Bloomberg's editorial board writes. It belongs to all of us. Stephen Carter agrees we shouldn't surrender the 13-star flag to white supremacists. But he also thinks Nike is within its own First Amendment rights to not put it on a shoe. And though conservatives have a right not to wear the shoe, Nike shouldn't be penalized by, say, the state of Arizona for its own free-speech choice. Lagarde for the ECB As IMF chief, Christine Lagarde showed flexibility in the face of two massive crises, the financial one and the European debt one. Thus tempered, she'll be the perfect leader of the ECB as it faces new, but disturbingly familiar challenges, Bloomberg's editorial board writes. While we're on the subject of job changes: When Lagarde replaces him at the ECB, Mario Draghi should take her job at the IMF, writes Ferdinando Giugliano. Unfortunately, there are reasons to doubt that will happen. Telltale Charts The FOMO scramble for yield has gotten so frantic, even Greek debt is looking good, writes Marcus Ashworth.  America's tech behemoths have a huge advantage over potential rivals in the form of physical infrastructure – warehouses, undersea cables, etc. – on which they spend many many billions of dollars, writes Shira Ovide.  Bolstering Samsung Electronics Co.'s rosy second-quarter earnings was a massive one-time cash infusion, possibly from Apple Inc., to make up for unsold display products, notes Tim Culpan. It's the latest sign of tech's growing inventory problem.  Further Reading KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is suggesting people not fly, to help curb carbon emissions. Believe it or not, this might be a viable business plan for airlines as the planet heats up. – Chris Bryant Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is rapidly losing power and credibility. Sanctioning him, as Trump is considering, would be pointless. – Bobby Ghosh India's storied Congress Party may wither and die, leaving only Modi's nationalist party to run things. – Mihir Sharma Here's why unicorns are so rare in Japan. – Nisha Gopalan China's private sector is giving investors reason to distrust it at precisely the wrong time. – Shuli Ren China is suddenly short on skilled workers. – Adam Minter Vietnam is discovering the downside of being a trade-war "winner." – Dan Moss Here's an immigration supporter's argument to include a citizenship question in the census. – Tyler Cowen ICYMI China still insists the U.S. remove all tariffs. Scientists upgrade reforestation's potential to slow climate change. Kickers We need insects more than they need us. Meet the Dr. Strange of the American Revolution. How posters became art. Photos of the week. Note: Please send posters and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. New to Bloomberg Opinion Today? Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
Post a Comment