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Millennials have had the worst economic luck

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Today's Agenda

Millennials Have Reason to Complain

As you may have heard, the generations (assuming they even exist) are fighting again. Millennials accuse Boomers of destroying the economy, climate and democracy, while Boomers think Millennials should be more respectful. Millennials may blame the wrong people for their problems, but problems they certainly have. As Noah Smith points out, this generation is now on the cusp of middle age (they are no longer The Kids These Days), without having experienced the kind of economic boom the Boomers or even Generation X enjoyed. Many are at or near peak earning power without yet having bought a house or raised children.

On the plus side, writes Tyler "Boomer" Cowen, Millennials will at least have Social Security benefits when they retire, even under the most pessimistic scenarios. It's the absolute least Boomers can do for their children.

Luxury For (Re)Sale

Kids These Days may be into socialism (see above), but they're also into investing — not in stocks, but in clothing, at such sites as StockX.com, where bonkers-expensive sneakers and streetwear are priced like equities, complete with crawling ticker symbols:

One of the oldest of these companies is The RealReal, which specializes in luxury brands and whose stock you can now buy on the real stock market (ticker: REAL). It's part of a $28 billion secondhand-swag industry that could grow to $51 billion in the next few years, write Sarah Halzack and Andrea Felsted. This might seem like bad news for, say, Gucci or Louis Vuitton or Adidas or the other brands being swapped on these sites. You kind of wonder how Nike Inc. feels about the Air Max shoe in the photo above going for $1,762 secondhand when it originally retailed for just $130.

But as streetwear behemoth Supreme has demonstrated, being hot in the resale market just makes your brand more alluring. It also encourages Kids These Days to buy stuff retail, if they can get their hands on it:

No wonder some luxury brands are trying to co-opt this business, striking joint ventures with, and sometimes taking stakes in, resale operations. It's a trend others might want to follow.

The Republican Party Has a Trump Problem

If President Donald Trump keeps his job at the end of the impeachment process — which is not a coup, as Jonathan Bernstein notes, contra Newt Gingrich — it will be because he has been saved by seemingly sensible Republicans such as Nikki Haley. On the publicity tour for her new book, Trump's former UN ambassador has taken her old boss's side, including against former colleagues who she claims tried to undermine the president. This is disappointing for Trump critics who hoped Haley might be a fellow traveler. But Haley's defense of Trump is nevertheless an indictment of him too, writes Ramesh Ponnuru: She implies there was no way for Trump staffers to defend the Constitution, whether they obeyed his illegal commands or ignored them, thereby subverting the will of the duly elected president. 

Trump may not 

destroy the GOP, as Lindsey Graham warned, back before Trump apparently won his soul in a golf game. But Trump will certainly change it. What will the party look like when Trump is gone, in one or five or nine years? A recent Marco Rubio speech suggests there is hope for a post-Trump conservatism, writes Michael Strain. It's one that keeps Trump's focus on the lives of workers, while also eschewing Trump's destructive populism. 

Climate Action Is Hard

The U.S. isn't the only big country with a politically important coal industry and climate-change-fueled wildfire problem. Australia's coal industry is even more critical to its economic fortunes than America's — Australia is the biggest fossil-fuel exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, notes David Fickling. That helps explain why Australia's conservative political leaders are just as loath as America's Republicans are to discuss climate change — even though fires are burning around Sydney just as they are all over California. It will keep getting harder to ignore.

One key to fighting climate change is making airplanes burn less carbon. And that will mean making engines more efficient. But as Chris Bryant notes, a series of breakdowns suggests engines are reaching their technical limits, at the worst possible moment. In air travel, as in Australian and American politics, translating climate awareness into action is a daunting challenge.

Further Reading

Streaming subscriptions will get very expensive for consumers, making bundles the wave of the future. — Tara Lachapelle 

It's ridiculous to pay CBS Corp. CEO Joe Iannello $100 million to sleep through the Viacom Inc. merger. — Joe Nocera

In the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's bid to end DACA, the law may trump (ahem) morality. — Noah Feldman

While Iran's nuclear threat grows, Trump and Netanyahu are distracted and compromised. — Zev Chafets 

The Fed's own research suggests its interest-rate target is still too high. — Tim Duy

A Federal court ruling could do away with recourse mortgages. — Stephen Carter

Nobel-winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo suggest it's time we stop treating the poor like losers. — Mark Whitehouse 

ICYMI

The Disney+ launch wasn't so magical.

Tesla's Model 3 gain is BMW's pain.

Star Wipers makes the rags that clean up all your messes (a feature by Opinion's Adam Minter).

Kickers

Vietnam's fanged mouse-deer, once thought extinct, is back.  (h/t Scott Kominers)

Illegal pot operations are poisoning wildlife and water.

The rain forest is teeming with consciousness.

Play-Doh was invented accidentally.

Note: Please send Play-Doh and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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