Do you feel de-escalated yet?

Follow Us This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a royal family of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda The Iran crisis may just be hibernating. Carlos Ghosn is not a sympathetic defendant. Boeing is belatedly taking some bitter medicine. We really don't need any more impeachment witnesses. Relatively harmless, for now. Photographer: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images World War III Threat Advisory Level: Orange After days of building tension, cooler heads briefly seemed to prevail in the U.S. and Iran today. Key word: briefly. Sure, the Islamic Republic fired some missiles at American bases in Iraq last night, but it was an uncharacteristically conventional attack, Eli Lake notes. And the missiles were apparently designed to fall where the people weren't. President Donald Trump, perhaps sensing an off-ramp, today spoke glowingly of Iran as a country with "enormous untapped potential." Stock traders sang "Kumbaya." But maybe we shouldn't go slapping each other's backs just yet. Trump also announced Iran would have to strive to meet that untapped potential while weighed down by even more sanctions. Meanwhile, some harmless missile launches probably won't slake the thirst for vengeance gripping Tehran, writes Bobby Ghosh. Iran may well bide its time and turn to proxies to do its dirtier work, as it so often does. And what do you know: Just before this newsletter published, there were reports of rockets hitting Baghdad's Green Zone. For now, we should be grateful Trump has found a way out of the current crisis, given that his policy apparatus is either empty or filled with D-list talent, writes Jonathan Bernstein. Even the best and the brightest can make horrible foreign-policy mistakes. But the odds of a disaster are much higher when the bench is as thin as Trump's. Further Iran Reading: Iran or no, there's still too much oil in the world to support higher prices for long. — David Fickling Ghosn Unboxed, Unleashed Pretty much everyone remembers where they were on November 19, 2018, the Day That Will Live in Infamy, when Japan sneak-arrested Carlos Ghosn. Those of us still haunted by it will be happy to know he is starting to get his revenge. Ghosn, the fallen God-Emperor of Renault-Nissan-Mistubishi, or "Hydra," gave his long-awaited press conference today, in which he quite reasonably compared his arrest on charges of financial misconduct to the Pearl Harbor attack that took out much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and killed 2,335 people. Somewhere in his narcissistic hyperbole salad were nuggets of truth about his poor treatment by Japanese authorities, writes Chris Bryant. But his protests of innocence were unconvincing, as was his apparent belief he can just choose the friendliest venue in which to be tried for his alleged crimes. That's not how any of this works, as Matt Levine points out. Although if you have the means to spirit yourself from the country in a box, then maybe it does work that way for you. Ghosn's towering sense of entitlement — which leads him to do stuff like squat in a Nissan-owned Beirut mansion and throw exorbitant parties at Versailles — also makes him a bit unsympathetic. That may be one reason France, where Ghosn earned his business bones, isn't rushing to his defense, as Lionel Laurent notes. Assisting the likes of Ghosn won't exactly help Emmanuel Macron look less Jupiterian. Nissan had its own shameful role in this drama, writes Joe Nocera. The company may have been right to fire Ghosn and perhaps claw back some of his exorbitant pay. But it must already regret taking the extra time, money and energy trying to ruin him. And now he is hell-bent on making it rue its choices even more. There's plenty of infamy to go around. Boeing's Annus Horribilis Extends to Second Year It was a bizarre, tragic irony that last night, while the world fretted about Iranian missiles falling harmlessly on American bases in Iraq, 176 people died in a fiery commercial plane crash not far away in the outskirts of Tehran. The jet involved was a Boeing Co. 737-800, a predecessor to the 737 Max, which has been grounded for months after two other deadly crashes. It's still not clear what caused the latest disaster. This happened on the same day Boeing agreed pilots should train on simulators before flying the 737 Max again. The plane maker had long resisted taking this step, notes Brooke Sutherland. It's the right thing to do, but it will delay the Max's return and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It also suggests Boeing should get to work finding a 737 Max replacement soon, Brooke writes. Read the whole thing. Wanted: Magical Impeachment Witness to Change Republican Minds Trump's impeachment trial grew closer to actually happening, as some Senate Democrats started to grumble about Nancy Pelosi's delay in handing over impeachment articles. Many Democrats worry that doing so will basically abandon all leverage and let Mitch McConnell prevent any new testimony, greasing the skids for acquittal. But Noah Feldman argues there's already more than enough evidence to convict and remove Trump, if senators were actually swayed by such things. Telltale Charts Kids these days aren't into the whole "driving" thing, possibly another sign we have reached peak auto, writes Justin Fox. Hooray, Macy's Inc.'s sales decline was much less terrible in the holiday quarter. It will still have to do better to prove its viability, writes Andrea Felsted. Further Reading At some point the market will need better earnings growth, but the outlook isn't great. — John Authers Greece's economy is still in deep trouble, even as the IMF declares its rescue over. — Leonid Bershidsky Austria is trying a bold experiment, splitting government portfolios between conservatives and Greens, to avoid gridlock. Germany and the rest of Europe should take note. — Leonid Bershidsky Facebook Inc.'s ban on deepfake videos is a good start but doesn't go nearly far enough. — Cass Sunstein Not all the trends in America point to a society dying from despair. — Noah Smith ICYMI The Catholic Church is shielding $2 billion in assets. Prince Harry and Meghan plan to "step back" from the royal family. The royal family has other plans. Bel Air mansion has $58 million mortgage, 21 bathrooms, "Airwolf" helicopter. Kickers Bat quarters? Bat quarters. Pizza vending machine? Pizza vending machine. (h/t Scott Kominers for the first two kickers) Scientists find a new mysterious radio signal from a galaxy similar to our own, and relatively close. Fifty TV shows to watch in 2019. Note: Please send bat quarters and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022