| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a Curtain of Distraction of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Try not to look. Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images North America Fed Wilts Before Curtain of Distraction, MaybeIt stinks sitting behind the backboard at a basketball game. But at least you get the perk of being able to distract the opposing team's free-throw shooters. It's low-risk fun, with a higher payout rate than trying to make the soldiers laugh at Buckingham Palace — especially when professionals get involved, like those handling Arizona State's infamous Curtain of Distraction. The Federal Reserve is inured to razzing from the cheap seats. But you can't help but wonder if it got just a little rattled by the very serious people yelling at it about inflation, writes John Authers. This week it bent to its hawkish critics just a little. But rather than cheering, markets are acting as if it made a mistake and downgrading growth bets. Stay focused, Fed! Further Inflation-Watch Reading: Only the Good Die Young, Too OftenOne of the weirder things about human culture is how much we glamorize dying young. The motivations for this are both shallow and deep-rooted, but they all surely amount to coping with the awful truth that an early death is a terrible waste of life and potential. And America is losing its young people, with all their potential, at a far faster rate than other developed nations, writes Justin Fox.  This grim trend was in place long before the Covid pandemic, which disproportionately took older Americans. It will continue once the pandemic is over. America has three major risks most other wealthy countries don't have: too many guns, too many cars driven too fast and too many drugs. Weirdly enough, we glamorize those things, too. Read the whole thing.  Team America: Infrastructure PoliceInfrastructure Week celebrated its fourth birthday this month with rounds of bipartisan infrastructure negotiations that may not go anywhere. Infrastructure Week will never die! If those negotiations fail, Democrats have vowed to push a partisan package through the "reconciliation" process, which according to arcane Senate tradition lets you pass bills with a mere majority of votes. Bloomberg's editorial board argues a bipartisan deal would accomplish more infrastructuring than what Dems could ram through reconciliation's murky labyrinth. They would also thus avoid the Senate parliamentarian, a frog-wizard who lives in a tree and dispenses riddles that must be answered under penalty of death. Bonus Editorial: The delta variant makes vaccinating as many people as possible imperative, via carrot or stick. — Bloomberg's editorial board Further Infrastructure Reading: Instead of indexing the gas tax to inflation, we should replace it with a miles-traveled tax. — Karl Smith Telltale ChartsCalifornia and Texas are like cats and dogs, but they have one big thing in common, writes Liam Denning: Climate change is making it ever harder to keep electricity running.  China may want to slow down steel production and the pollution it creates, but it must change its building-heavy economy first, writes David Fickling.  Further Reading Obamacare may finally be safe from political assault, partly because it's surprisingly popular now. — Jonathan Bernstein Maduro is pleading to end sanctions, but his policies are what's hurting Venezuela's economy. — Eli Lake Why aren't activists targeting industrials? — Brooke Sutherland Goldman's laughably bad soccer forecasts are a reminder of the limitations of models. — Leonid Bershidsky Sports betting is becoming more ubiquitous, but beware its dangers. — Lionel Laurent ICYMI Menopause is driving some women from their jobs. The revolving door isn't spinning quickly for Donald Trump's lawyers. Once-swamped hospitals now have zero Covid patients. Kominers's Conundrums HintTonight is your last chance to solve our before-and-after trivia game Conundrum! We'll be releasing answers to some of the intermediate clues on Twitter tonight. And if you're stuck on the last step, here's a hint: The final "before-and-after" is pointing to a musical number mixed up with an ice cream topping. — Scott Duke Kominers KickersA prehistoric rhino was the biggest land mammal ever. Eighty percent of ransomware victims who pay up get hit again. Oregon legalized human composting. Area man loses at fantasy football, must spend 15 hours in a Waffle House.  Notes: Please send waffles and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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