| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a pseudonymous novel of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.  This had better be worth it. Source: MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/MediaNews Group RM/Getty Images How much money would it take to convince you to work 72 hours a week for three years? Would $10,000 be enough? That's the bonus some investment banks are now offering to pretty please come be first-year analysts for them. It might sound like a lot of money if you're just out of college. But Marcus Ashworth notes it amounts to about $1 an hour over the course of those grueling three years, which is apparently now the industry standard of suffering required to get your banking Tenderfoot badge. That $1 becomes even less appealing when you consider you could instead spend those years at a flying-taxi startup or mining Bitcoin or writing pseudonymous novels. With all the free time you'll get from not doing banking, maybe you could do all three. For a good while there, people worried about all the STEM grads going to Wall Street to slice and dice securities instead of atoms. Now those grads have other avenues to wealth and fulfillment, and they're taking them. Banks will either have to pay more or try harder to be appealing. Read the whole thing. Anybody who's ever fallen in love at a summer camp, reality TV show or hostage situation knows big commitments made in extreme psychological conditions don't always last. But a pandemic might be different. People aren't returning their quarantine pets, and history suggests marriages formed during hard times might be more durable, Stephen Mihm writes. Then again, a divorce boom might follow the boom in post(ish)-pandemic weddings happening now. Also of uncertain staying power is any rush to build housing in small cities to meet the demand of people fleeing bigger ones, writes Conor Sen. Right now the economics of building apartments are better in Spokane than in San Francisco. But a few years after the pandemic, Spokane might end up like that summer-camp romance: a pleasant, fading memory. Some things never change. The U.S. and the Soviet Union fought their long cold war through proxies. Now the same thing is happening with the new cold war(s) happening between America, Russia, China and Iran. Russia is hiring mercenaries and criminals to harass and hack American interests, while Iran is doing the same thing but with militias, writes Hal Brands. The U.S. is fighting back a bit, but it's generally not handling the situation well. It wants to stay focused on China and avoid escalating other conflicts. But that means the harassment and hacking continue. The Biden administration did get it right when it worked with allies to bring criminal charges against alleged Chinese hackers, Bloomberg's editorial board writes. Maybe the way to deal with harassment and hacking without raising tensions too high is to have a unified front grinding methodically against it. A can't-lose "buy" signal is flashing in the stock market, writes John Authers. It's a trap!  Luxury brands are cashing in on a post-pandemic rebound to get ready for what comes next, writes Andrea Felsted.  The $26 billion opioid settlement isn't nearly enough, but the lawyers will push it anyway, for money. — Joe Nocera Antiviral drugs that might be available early next year could be a big weapon in the fight against Covid. — Sam Fazeli Vaccine mandates in limited situations don't conflict with libertarian principles. — Stephen Carter PG&E's unworkable plan to bury all its wires is probably a PR ploy. — Liam Denning When faced with political controversies, companies can either become mules or mice. — Ben Schott U.S.-China trade is booming again. The Olympics fired another opening ceremony director. Secrets of a superyacht deckhand. Meet the Fyre Festival of sleepaway camps. (h/t Scott Kominers) Scientists find a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite. Our civilization's collapse is progressing right on schedule. How to get more out of reading.  Notes: Please send caviar helicopters and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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