| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a cave mural of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda  Hope You Enjoyed the Market's Great Decade The 2010s still have a few weeks left to run, but assuming aliens don't invade or Yellowstone doesn't erupt before New Year's, it looks as if this will be one of the best decades on record for U.S. stocks. Maybe don't hold your breath for a repeat in the '20s. The S&P 500 has returned more than 13% in the past 10 years, the fifth-best performance since the 1880s, notes Nir Kaissar. If you only listen to cynical newsletter writers and people on Wall Street and don't bother looking at the numbers, you'd think this is a simple story of easy Fed money and rampant stock buybacks. Nir is that rare person who actually looks at numbers, and in this case he discovers the true story of the past decade has been a record, broad-based boom in earnings growth:  It doesn't take a math genius to see that the main feature of the chart above is its wild volatility. Big gains such as the past decade's aren't sustainable for long. And unfortunately, history suggests (those darn numbers again!) low interest rates and buybacks aren't enough to keep the good times rolling when the earnings growth stops. Maybe aliens will give us new money-minting technology. Further Markets Reading: Fed policy makers and markets agree we're in a golden age of market bliss. Uh-oh! — John Authers China Trade Truce Now More Imminent Than Ever That said, the stock market looked pretty good again today, thanks to the U.S. and China finally settling on that long-awaited "phase one" trade deal. We'll have to see if it sticks and whether it can undo much of the damage the long trade war has already inflicted on the global economy. Hopes for China's economy have been fanned a bit by rising steel prices there, but David Fickling notes this is due more to restocking of low inventories than an imminent boom. In the longer run, a "phase one" deal will probably leave many knotty issues unaddressed, risking a relapse to "phase zero." In the longer longer run, the U.S. will have to start thinking seriously about its goals vis-Ã -vis China, which President Donald Trump has struggled to explain. His State Department has recently started to say constructive things about how the U.S. could help China's neighbors, writes Hal Brands. Executing on that vision will require more finesse than Trump has demonstrated so far, however. Further Trade-War Reading: Trump has hobbled the WTO's dispute-resolution capabilities, setting up global trade to resemble "Lord of the Flies." — Lionel Laurent The GOP's Trump Defenses Get More Disturbing Trump this morning crowed about the coming "BIG DEAL" with China and watched stocks soar to new highs in response, which probably helped him temporarily forget the House Judiciary Committee debating his imminent impeachment at the same time. This debate has featured a troubling new defense from Republicans, notes Jonathan Bernstein, which is basically: Sure, OK, maybe Trump did abuse his power to push Ukraine for help with the 2020 election, but abuse of power is basically the divine right of presidents. Not a great look for a democracy. Equally disturbing are Attorney General William Barr's attacks on his own Justice Department, writes Noah Feldman, seen most recently in his response to the inspector general's report on the FBI's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump has long blasted G-men and other "deep state" actors who dare to investigate him. Rather than defend his employees, Barr keeps echoing his boss's paranoid claims. That demoralizes the department and erodes public trust in it. Brelection Draws to Merciful Close As of this writing, U.K. voters were almost done casting ballots in their, let's say, 14th election of the past three years. I'm not going to check those numbers, but that feels right. Anyway, polls have long had Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party with a big lead over Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. But after Brexit and Trump, nobody believes polls, and they have tightened anyway. Before the returns start coming in tonight, it's worth taking a grim walk down memory lane to remember just how ow badly both Johnson and Corbyn have comported themselves in this election, writes Therese Raphael. From pocketed cellphones to botched interviews, neither man has offered voters an inspiring choice. Telltale Charts Recent test-score data has many Americans worried their kids are hopelessly falling behind the rest of the world, particularly China. Noah Smith writes these fears collapse under close scrutiny.  And the rising efficiency of renewable energy is causing headaches for Texas power generators used to surge pricing, writes Liam Denning.  The EU will have to kick in a lot more money to help Eastern European countries meet its ambitious carbon goals, warns Leonid Bershidsky; otherwise they won't be met.  Further Reading Gavin Newsom has a tough decision to make about PG&E's bankruptcy. — Liam Denning Trump's order prohibiting anti-Semitism on college campus could be used to stifle free speech. — Noah Feldman CEO turnover in the retail industry was unusually high this year. Here's what it all means. — Sarah Halzack Christine Lagarde sounds very different from Mario Draghi. Will her new approach work? — Ferdinando Giugliano Tech competition and a stretch of bad business are driving banks to relocate from the coasts. — Conor Sen Greta Thunberg deserves her magazine cover. — Faye Flam ICYMI U.S. business debt passed that of households for the first time since 1991. Former NFL players were charged with health-care fraud. North America's first indoor ski slope feels real. Kickers Luxury hotel guests keep stealing mattresses. Crows could be the second-smartest animals after primates. Archaeologists find 44,000-year-old cave painting. Every movie of the 2010s, ranked. Note: Please send ravens and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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