The Supreme Court is going to be a problem for Joe Biden

Follow Us Get the newsletter This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a Supreme Court of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Democrats must decide how to respond to a partisan Supreme Court. A disappointing antibody trial reminds us there are no Covid shortcuts. The stock market is not the economy. Sheldon Adelson is making a risky bet on Macau. High Court Presents High Hurdles If this were a normal year, whatever the heck that means, Democrats would be feeling pretty good right now. Their presidential candidate has a big, steady lead a week before Election Day, and they seem likely to recapture the Senate. They may soon have the entire government in their grasp — all but one branch. But wow, that branch. Last night Amy Coney Barrett became a Supreme Court justice, making her the sixth conservative vote on a nine-seat bench. This court is now poised to cancel not only anything Joe Biden might do but also stuff President Barack Obama did, too, including the Affordable Care Act. Any post-election celebration for the Democrats (assuming the court doesn't re-appoint President Donald Trump) must soon give way to frantic planning for how to deal with what will likely be a hyper-partisan court, writes Jonathan Bernstein.  Republicans have certainly opened the door to some unsporting options. They blocked Obama from filling an open Supreme Court seat and then cynically reversed their rationale for that obstruction to elevate Barrett just eight days before the election, after millions had already voted. A third of today's court was appointed and confirmed by a president and Senate who both lost popular votes, the first time that's ever happened. Radical Republican hardball brought us to this place, and Democrats have to decide whether to keep respecting norms or get radical themselves, writes Cass Sunstein. Biden has promised only a bipartisan commission to consider high-court reforms. He may soon find he needs faster and less amicable relief. Expanding the court is one option increasingly popular with the base, and it would certainly be the easiest route to neutralizing Barrett & Co. Bloomberg's editorial board warns this would only invite further escalation. But something must be done about a system that has devolved into such destructive trench warfare, and not just to make Democrats happy. Further Supreme Court Reading: Why Dems couldn't slow down Barrett's confirmation. — Ramesh Ponnuru  Paid Post All your teams' apps and files now speak Dropbox. That's right, no more arguing about which app is best. You and your team can now work across all of your favorite apps, all from one central workspace.  The flexibility that works best for your team, works in Dropbox.  Start a free 30 day trial today. Dropbox Covid Patience Is a Virtue There's an old saying that you should never pray for patience because you'll soon find it tested. This pandemic is the answer to somebody's very, very dumb prayer. Because it is apparently never going to end. Eight months into it, and we're now at the very beginning of a dismal third wave in the U.S. and second waves in other, smarter countries. We're still avoiding indoor spaces, wearing masks and keeping friends at several arms' lengths. Working from home is still making a lot of people lonely, as Sarah Green Carmichael  writes. We're even hoarding food again. There's no vaccine yet, and yesterday brought disappointing news that an Eli Lilly antibody treatment didn't help hospitalized Covid-19 patients. As Max Nisen writes, this is a reminder that there are still no quick fixes to this virus, no matter what the president says about being cured. We'll still need social distancing, masks and, above all, patience for the foreseeable future. Getting kids back to school would probably help calm everybody's nerves. But we still lack confidence in how safe that might be. Generally, kids get less sick than others, and schools can be safe with the proper measures. But studies about whether schools are big Covid spreaders are still pretty frustratingly inconclusive, writes Ferdinando Giugliano. Every reopening comes with logistical headaches and risks. But won't we all be more patient when it's over? Don't answer that. Stocks Are Not the Economy As John Authers notes, the latest Covid eruption is finally cracking the stock market's perma-grin. This makes intuitive sense: Human suffering should = market suffering, according to the abacus in most human brains. But don't be surprised if the market starts rallying again very soon, as it has for most of this pandemic, which has been very confusing for our brain-abacuses. The pandemic is bad and has absolutely destroyed the economy. Trump and others tell us all the time the market is the best measure of the economy. And yet the two look completely disconnected. How can that be? Nir Kaissar has the dirty little secret: The stock market is not the economy. It doesn't even kind of resemble the economy: bbg://news/stories/QIUFW6T1UM0Y bbg://news/stories/QIUFW6T1UM0Y Stocks measure investor expectations of the future profits of public companies. The economy is much bigger and more complex than that. Corporate sales may be a shaky rope bridge linking stocks to GDP, Nir writes, but even that tips over as often as not. In summary: The stock market is not the economy. Telltale Charts Sheldon Adelson selling out of Las Vegas to double down on Macau and Singapore sure looks like a risky, badly timed bet, writes David Fickling. Further Reading Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has embarrassed Boris Johnson with a widely popular call to feed schoolchildren, and Johnson's politically clueless resistance isn't helping. — Therese Raphael  Raytheon Technologies has billions in cash and sees opportunities for investment. It's still cutting thousands of jobs. And it won't be alone. — Brooke Sutherland  The pandemic hasn't been so bad in Arab countries, but the economic damage has still been severe. — Amr Adly  With its export mix and its deft handling of the pandemic, South Korea is a winner of the pandemic economy. — Dan Moss  Telecom operators are rolling out 5G improvements that will make pricey new phones start to live up to their promise. — Tim Culpan  Local resistance in Chicago to Obama's presidential library reveals the scars of gentrification. — Pete Saunders  The downside to meritocracy is forgetting the dignity of all people. — Mervyn King  ICYMI Trump pulled most advertising from Florida. China's rise to superpower status is really a restoration. Some merchants gamble it all on Amazon and lose. Kickers Scientists say they may have found a way to stop and reverse Alzheimer's. A meteor that hit Earth in 2018 is covered in thousands of organic compounds.  Thirty lines of code blew up a 27-ton generator. Electromagnetic fields in the brain may be the seat of consciousness. Note: Please send organic compounds and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.   Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more. You'll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. 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