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Lockdowns bought us time. Did we waste it?

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Today's Agenda

Actually, wearing a mask isn't just for your own body.

Photographer: Sergio Flores/Getty Images North America

Wave Theory

As coronavirus cases rise in parts of the U.S., in what may be a second wave or just an extension of the first one, it's hard not to feel that three months of avoiding other humans like the literal plague have been for naught.

It would help if the country had used that time as it was partially intended, to bulk up its ability to test and trace people with the virus and their contacts. In fact, science has made huge strides in those areas since the pandemic began, notes Faye Flam, but we still have no strategy for rolling them out widely.

Maybe we could be out and about more safely if everybody were wearing masks, but they're not. Even in New York and New Jersey, America's pandemic epicenter, it's too easy to find people spewing germs in crowds and enclosed spaces. We could be angry with them, but responsibility for such attitudes starts at the very top, writes Jonathan Bernstein, with the mask-refuser-in-chief, President Donald Trump.

Trump's obvious disgust with shelter-in-place orders has also made it politically much more difficult to reimpose such lockdowns to quell a virus resurgence. Clara Ferreira Marques suggests we may end up having to compromise, with rolling lockdowns that look more like child-custody agreements — only on weekends, say, or every other week. Like a custody agreement, it's not ideal, but maybe it's the best we can do under these grim circumstances.

Further Virus-Fighting Reading: Everybody should get a flu shot to help hospitals concentrate on Covid-19 this fall. — Max Nisen

Racism All Over the World

The Black Lives Matter movement may have started in America, but America isn't the only nation that needs it. Sure, with its legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws and police violence against Black people, the U.S. seems uniquely racist. But there are George Floyds, Breonna Taylors and Philando Castiles all over the world, writes Sisonke Msimang, from Canada to Australia.

And many other nations built their wealth on the backs of subjugated people. High on that list is the U.K., which Mihir Sharma writes has as much reason to reject the racist imperialism of Winston Churchill as Americans do the legacies of Confederate generals.

In the U.K.'s former prison colony, Aboriginal people are still being exploited for power and profit, writes David Fickling, illustrated by a miner's casual destruction of a 46,000-year-old holy site.

Even Germany, which has bravely faced up to the Holocaust, as Pankaj Mishra notes, still has a problem with making immigrants and people of color feel like outsiders, writes Andreas Kluth.

Further Systemic Racism Reading:

Neil Gorsuch Stakes His Claim

The year 2020 has brought a lot of things we didn't see coming. "Neil Gorsuch defends LGBT rights" is among the happiest of them. A lot of conservatives are furious, of course, with Gorsuch's opinion, delivered today, that people shouldn't be fired simply for being gay or transgender. But Noah Feldman writes this is just the kind of opinion on which Antonin Scalia built his reputation (deserved or not) as a conservative defender of judicial principles without concern for whose feelings got hurt.

The Fed's Magical Mystery Tour

The stock market continued to rebound today, shaking off virus worries to focus on yet another shiny toy from the Federal Reserve: a new plan to straight-up buy corporate bonds, rather than just dabbling in ETFs as it has been doing. It's not exactly clear what problem this is supposed to solve, writes Brian Chappatta. And Mohamed El-Erian warns the Fed's dogged determination never to let markets be sad for too long not only increases the disconnect between stock prices and the economy but also raises real economic risks.

Rock-bottom interest rates, along with mortgage forbearance and a construction shutdown, have joined forces to boost home prices in the middle of a deep recession, notes Conor Sen. This is weird and bad news for anybody hoping to pick up a house at a bargain. But it is a boon for the economy.

Further Markets Reading: People say there's no alternative to the dollar, but its major competitors seem to have only upside. — Stephen Roach

Corporations Are Unhappy People Too, My Friend

People are struggling these days, including those people known as corporations. Here are our takes on a busy day of coping for Corporate America:

J.C. Penney Co. may want better rescuers than Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners. — Sarah Halzack

BP Plc has gotten serious about the grim outlook for oil. — Chris Hughes

The new Walmart-Shopify team-up is a threat to Amazon.com Inc.'s dominance. — Tae Kim

Quibi was probably doomed from the start, and now it's probably too late to fix. — Tara Lachapelle

General Electric Co. picked a good time to pick new leadership for its aviation division. — Brooke Sutherland

Telltale Charts

States face an enormous budget shortfall that only the federal government can fill, warns Noah Smith. Doing so could save millions of jobs and shorten the recession.

Around the world, oil demand is recovering much more slowly than almost anybody expected, writes Julian Lee.

Further Reading

America should make it easy for everyone in the country to vote by mail. — Bloomberg's editorial board

Coronavirus is making cancer detection and treatment much more difficult. — Therese Raphael

A report from inside Seattle's CHAZ, where all is flaming chaos. Haha, just kidding. — Joni Balter

It's time to reform corporate compensation committees to focus on worker pay. — Leo Strine Jr. and Kirby Smith

We'll need more than gestures from Big Tech to take facial recognition away from law enforcement. — Cathy O'Neil

London foxes are becoming domesticated, suggesting friendliness and cooperation is a survival trait. — Cass Sunstein

ICYMI

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider "qualified immunity" for cops and gun-rights appeals.

The first coronavirus vaccines may simply prevent severe illness, not infection.

Maybe we should defund prisons.

Kickers

Scientists discover vast, mysterious structures inside the Earth.

Somebody left a huge sack of gold on a Swiss train. (h/t Scott Kominers for the first two kickers)

Area woman cleans up by buying flight insurance.

Hackers use an ordinary lightbulb to eavesdrop.

Correction: Friday's newsletter incorrectly said Juneteenth celebrates the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. It actually marks the day slaves in Texas learned they had been freed.

Note: Please send gold and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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