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Today's Agenda

Inflation Watch! A Dashboard Is Born

Some worries are better suited for a dashboard solution than others. Will your car make it through this road trip? There's a dashboard for that. Is there an afterlife? No dashboard.

One worry on a lot of people's minds these days is inflation. Not enough to actually bet money on it in financial markets in significant numbers, but still — very worried! Fortunately, this issue is practically tailor-made for a dashboard. And now John Authers, in concert with graphics sorcerer Elaine He, has put together a colorful, intuitive, self-updating dashboard of 35 different inflation measures, to help you gauge just how panicked you should be on any given day about inflation.   

This image doesn't get across the marvelous interactivity of the real thing, but here's a snapshot of the current state of play:

With roughly half the indicators in the "normal" range, Bloomberg Opinion Today hereby declares the current Inflation Threat Level to be five Volckers out of 10. Stay tuned, and read the whole thing.

European Vexation

A lot of people apparently thought President Joe Biden would be the living embodiment of that SNL boombox (trigger warning for adult themes, boiled goose) at this weekend's G-7 meeting, washing away all the hate and advancing society merely with his non-Trumpian presence. But a boombox is not a toy, and diplomacy is not that simple.

Internecine wrangling at the meeting was a reminder that getting world leaders to work together these days is harder than training cicadas to form a conga line. Without more actual cooperation, the "New Atlantic Charter" declared this weekend won't cause Vladimir Putin or other anti-democratic types to lose any sleep, writes Max Hastings.

The fact that key members of the charter, the EU and the U.K., spent much of the weekend brawling over old Northern Ireland grievances does not bode well. As Therese Raphael points out, this spat won't make the aggressively Irish Joe Biden any more likely to go easy on the U.K. in a trade deal. But Boris Johnson may feel he has no choice but to throw red meat to Brexiteers at home.

This only makes Putin happier. He certainly won't be eager to concede anything to Biden at their meeting on Wednesday. In fact, given their history of personal animosity — let's call them you-don't-have-a-soulmates —  this meeting may do more harm than good, writes Leonid Bershidsky.

Biden is also meeting Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan at today's NATO meeting. But no amount of charm will turn that Putinesque leader around either, writes Bloomberg's editorial board. It's time for NATO, Europe and Biden to make clear Turkey is no longer in the circle of trust. International confabs may be chummier without Biden's predecessor around, but the world is not. 

Further Diplomacy Reading: It's time to revive the idea of a European army that can hold its own. — Andreas Kluth 

Bonus Editorial: The G-7 agreement on corporate taxes is no real solution. — Bloomberg's editorial board 

The More Vaccines, the Merrier

A year ago, it might have sounded ridiculous that the fifth or sixth major Covid-19 vaccine, delivered a year and a half into the pandemic, would be very useful. But here we are: The world still doesn't have nearly enough Covid vaccines, and some of them may not be as effective against variants (although most of them apparently very much are). So news that Novavax seems to have a solid new vaccine that also works against variants is manna from heaven, writes Max Nisen. This sweepstakes entry is especially important, as more than a billion doses will go straight to Covax, which is getting shots to developing countries. Keep 'em coming.

Telltale Charts

Despite wildfires, droughts, political turmoil and relentless doomsaying, California's economy keeps being whatever the opposite of doomed is, writes Matthew Winkler

Americans love cooking with gas, but it's increasingly problematic for the planet, writes Justin Fox

Further Reading

The solar-panel industry has a Xinjiang problem. — David Fickling

Just build infrastructure now and worry about paying for it later. — Matthew Yglesias

Naftali Bennett will have little power but can improve Israel's mood. — Zev Chafets 

Goldman Sachs seems serious about the whole Florida thing. — Brian Chappatta 

We shouldn't lower the standard of what qualifies a person to be dead enough to harvest their organs. — Ramesh Ponnuru 

Last year's surge in traffic deaths was a sign of how people ignore everyday risks. — Allison Schrager 

How student-loan borrowers can prepare for the end of Covid debt relief. — Erin Lowry 

ICYMI

Pfizer and Astra vaccines work on the delta Covid variant.

Young workers think they need the office to succeed.

Elon Musk is selling his house.

How to spot the next meme stock.

Kickers

One honeybee cloned itself hundreds of millions of times.

Would you pay $995 for a volleyball? (h/t Ellen Kominers for the first two kickers)

A brief history of the dunce cap. (h/t Scott Kominers)

Scientists built a machine that (sort of) reads dreams

I got swallowed by a whale. Ask me anything

Notes: Please send fancy cups and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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