And you thought malls were in trouble before

Follow Us This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an empty shopping mall of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Who wants to shop for clothes right now? A second virus wave is here, assuming you believe the numbers. Black lives matter, and cops aren't above the law. The Fed destroyed all volatility. The latest look. Photographer: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images Selling Clothes in a Pandemic You may claim to be a coronavirus skeptic, but ask yourself this: How eager are you to go to, say, a mall to try on, say, sweaters? Remember, this will involve prolonged exposure to other people in enclosed spaces and shoving articles of clothing over your head that other people have worn. If you felt yourself recoil in the slightest at that idea, then you've got some sense of the challenges ahead for clothing retailers, writes Sarah Halzack. Many were not in the greatest shape before the pandemic. Now, with depressed traffic and the higher cost of online sales and returns, many are doomed. In an effort to survive in the Before Times, some chains were rolling out fun new shopping "experiences," where you got your nails done or slurped lattes with teeming hordes of fellow shoppers. How fun does that sound now? Also in the Before Times, mall operator Simon Property Group Inc. cut a deal to buy Taubman Centers Inc., which operates fancy urban malls catering to tourists. Now that both tourism and shopping are all but dead, Simon wants out of the deal, it may shock to you to learn. (It won't.) Both businesses will come back some day, writes Brooke Sutherland. But Simon's got good reason to bail in these desperate times. The only shopping experience less appealing than trying on sweaters right now would be buying a mall operator. Sponsored Content by Bombas Show your pride with the new, colorful socks from the Bombas Pride Collection. For every pair you purchase, Bombas will donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community through The Ally Coalition. Use code BLOOMBERG for 20% off your first order.    The Second Wave Is Here Ordinarily being right about a thing is a source of great joy. Not in this case: Those of us who worried rushing to reopen states from pandemic lockdowns would lead to a second wave of the coronavirus are being proven right today, Bloomberg News reports. This is bad news for everybody. Even Cassandras just want to try on a sweater at the mall every now and then. Of course, not everybody will be convinced by the new numbers. One of the worst new virus hot spots in the country is Arizona (which is also a hot spot, temperature-wise, raising questions about weather's effect on the virus). But skeptics have picked apart its data, notes John Authers. He picks through them himself and confirms things do indeed look bad in Arizona. The fact that we have to fight about it is a sign of how little we trust each other and authorities to give us the straight facts, at a time when we need that trust the most. Further Reopening Reading: If we want companies to reopen quickly, we should protect them from liability if they follow safety guidelines. — Ramesh Ponnuru Reopening schools is worth the risk, given the damage closing them has done. — Joe Nocera Black Lives Matter, and What Comes Next Global protests over the death of George Floyd and other black men and women at the hands of police have already done a lot of good. For one thing, they've raised public awareness of the systemic racism faced by people of color in this country, possibly enough to actually lead to real change. One crude indicator is a surge in traffic to Wikipedia's "Black Lives Matter" entry, writes Ben Schott, illustrated with this helpful chart: One tangible result is a long-overdue debate about the future of policing. Some want to abolish the police altogether, and Floyd's home town of Minneapolis is tearing its force down and starting over. Some talk of "defunding" the police, a loaded term that, depending on the speaker, means everything from starving law enforcement of all money to just taking away its expensive toys. One possibly less-controversial way to start could be to take away the "qualified immunity" the police enjoy from civil-rights lawsuits, writes Noah Feldman. This would at the very least send the message that cops are supposed to enforce the law, not live above it. Telltale Charts The Fed's liquidity firehose swamped all market volatility, ending a panic and giving the economy room to grow, writes Marcus Ashworth. But it should keep its firehose at the ready. Uber has competition for the hand of Grubhub, with Just Eat Takeaway now in talks for a deal. That would be better for American consumers, Alex Webb writes, though maybe not so great for the Dutch acquirer. Further Reading Ending the Afghan war is hard enough. Withdrawing American troops too soon just to score a political win ahead of November will make it even harder. — Bloomberg's editorial board Everybody needs to prepare for not just an Election Night but an Election Week, or Month, in November. — Jonathan Bernstein Here are all the reasons the recession's pain could drag on for years if we're not aggressive in addressing it. — Noah Smith The latest U.S.-German spat shows how much the Merkel-Trump relationship has deteriorated, to the world's detriment. — Hal Brands ICYMI The Fed sees zero interest rates through 2022. Larry Kudlow said the U.S. doesn't have systemic racism. There's a waiting list for $1,000 haircuts in Manhattan. Kickers For some reason, Isaac Newton's toad-vomit plague cure didn't catch on. (h/t Mike Smedley) 13,300-year-old Chinese bird figurine found in the trash. (h/t Scott Kominers) The first American woman to spacewalk just went to the ocean's deepest point. Tacit knowledge is more important than deliberate practice. Note: Please send toad vomit 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