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You’ll miss business casual when it’s gone

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Today's Agenda

Now we all dress like this.

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America

Now It's Always Business Time

Gather around, little ones, and let Grandpappy tell you another tale of the Before Times, in February. Back then, there was something we called "business casual," which was special clothing you put on when you "went" to your "job." It was less restrictive than the work attire of the ancients, but less comfy than the sweatpants and slankets we enjoy today.

Now that those of us still employed mostly work in our spare bedrooms where nobody can see us, business casual has joined the necktie in sartorial Valhalla, writes Sarah Halzack. This helps explain why the stores where we bought the Midtown Uniform of fleece vests and slacks keep going bankrupt, from Brooks Brothers to Men's Wearhouse. Now that all you need for a Zoom meeting is a T-shirt without visible holes, who needs such places?

If and when we do return to the office, we might feel liberated to just keep wearing those T-shirts and sweatpants. (No slankets, though, please. We're not animals.) That Flight of the Conchords joke about "business socks" will lose its meaning. Business casual might never return. And you might celebrate its death, Sarah writes, but you should also remember it heralds the death of any remaining boundary between your work life and your "life" life.

Want to Help Society? Pay Workers

To you, the "Business Roundtable" may just be what you call the basement poker table where you now work. But it is in fact a cadre of CEOs who lobby on matters important to business. For decades, this group's opinions favored conservative policies such as tax cuts and union-busting. Lately, though, it has changed its tune somewhat, even suggesting companies should care about society just as much as they care about profit. That's admirable. Yet the Roundtable's CEOs still perpetuate one of America's most destructive social ills, note Nir Kaissar and Tim O'Brien: They don't pay their workers living wages. Oh, and they pay themselves huge salaries to boot. Jeff Bezos is the world's wealthiest man, for example, but Amazon's median full-time pay is about half what a person needs to cover expenses these days, Nir and Tim write. You can trace a whole lot of America's problems back to this one.

Make Masks Mandatory in the Sky

The good news is that the U.S. State Department today lifted its months-old warning against all international travel due to the pandemic. The bad news is that Americans may not find many desirable destinations that will take them. Also, you'll need to board an airplane to travel anywhere. Of course, as we wrote yesterday, flying on a plane isn't as risky as it seems. But it is much, much safer when everybody on board wears a mask. Unfortunately, not everybody is, uh, on board with that. The federal government needs to step in and make it mandatory, writes Bloomberg's editorial board. It's the only way to make sure travel is relatively safe for everybody.

Bonus Covid-19 Reading: After further review, Covid-19 still seems to be about 10 times deadlier than seasonal flu. — Justin Fox

TikTok Blowback

TikTok talks took a tremendous turn today. Try saying that five times fast. Anyway, Microsoft reportedly wants to buy much more than just the social media app's U.S. operations; it wants its entire global business. This may or may not be true. Even if it's not, and Microsoft ends up with merely the American part of TikTok, it will be a coup for the company and for President Donald Trump, who claims China's ownership of the app makes it dangerous. But for every action there is an opposite reaction, and David Fickling warns Trump's suspicion of TikTok's influence and foreign ownership may inspire foreign regulators to suddenly wonder why they've been so lax about America's tech giants.

Further TikTok Talk: The real risk of TikTok isn't data-mining but Chinese propaganda being pushed to users. — Eli Lake

Telltale Charts

Thanks to generous stimulus benefits and travel aversion, Americans are slashing their credit-card balances, writes Brian Chappatta. Their available credit under these lines is still more than $3 trillion and growing.

Short sellers have had a hard time lately, and nobody should be happy about that, writes Mark Gilbert. They make markets more efficient and expose fraud.

Further Reading

New York's attorney general shouldn't be allowed to dismantle the NRA. — Noah Feldman

Extreme Hindu nationalism is triumphant in Narendra Modi's India. — Mihir Sharma

Macroeconomists are strangely uninterested in updating their theories of how inflation gets started. — Noah Smith

Yes, gold is expensive, but it may get even more expensive. — John Authers

Vladimir Putin may be tempted to turn Belarus into another Ukraine. — Andreas Kluth

Africa has a chance to be a world leader on racial justice. — Lydiah Kemunto Bosire

ICYMI

Deutsche Bank reportedly gave Trump records to New York prosecutors.

Ohio's governor tested positive for Covid-19.

America is becoming a more miserable place.

Kickers

Italy's $1 homes aren't the bargain they seem. (h/t Scott Kominers)

People are feeding their kids mac and cheese for breakfast now. (h/t Mike Smedley)

Germany plans to dim lights at night to save insects.

Seven ideas for DIY backyard pools.

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

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