| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a New York restaurant of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.  TFW you are winning the argument. Photographer: Manny Carabel/Getty Images North America Almost exactly a year ago, somebody stuck a 21 Club fork in New York City and declared it Dead Forever. Jerry Seinfeld countered that no, putz, it was not. Jerry Seinfeld is winning the argument. As Noah Smith writes, the pandemic has brought an influx of people, particularly young ones, to the city. Maybe that's because plenty of good jobs are still here. And despite many closures, there are still restaurants, bars, shops, skate spots and other places young and old people gather to be around each other, because that is what vaccinated humans eventually must do after sitting in their spare bedrooms staring at Zoom for 18 months. The city still has megacity problems. The rent is still too damn high. A lot of closed businesses aren't coming back. Gentle rains turn the subway system into the world's most disgusting water park. And so on. But the city really has survived worse than this, and it's already bouncing back. On the other coast, meanwhile, California is also reasserting its identity. Some people thought the liberal Governor Gavin Newsom was a goner for frequenting the French Laundry, an even nicer restaurant than 21 Club, while issuing stiff pandemic mandates. Instead, he crushed a recall challenge. This is not, as some might have you believe, a warning sign for Democrats as much as it is for the party that lost in a landslide, writes Jonathan Bernstein. The GOP flopped after backing a fringe candidate and overestimating the appeal of its pro-Covid and anti-voting policy planks, similar to mistakes it made in 2020. If it sticks to this formula, it might keep losing elections. Whatever happens, New York and California will keep being New York and California. Bonus Politics Reading: GOP critics of Trump must call him out by name. He won't hesitate to call out theirs. — Ramesh Ponnuru As we wrote yesterday, the August CPI report was a touchdown for Team Transitory, but John Authers writes the game isn't over yet. His new dashboard of inflation indicators still falls in the middle of the scale that runs from "1990s Japan" to "Weimar Germany."  As a result, Bloomberg Opinion Today maintains its Inflation Threat Level at five (5) Volckers out of 10.  The numbers haven't shifted nearly enough to bump the Fed off its path toward cutting bond purchases, Bloomberg's editorial board writes. As John notes, letting inflation get less transitory would be bad news for not only consumers, but also the bond market, and by extension [waves hand around] all of the markets. Meanwhile, transitory or not, prices are high. Teresa Ghilarducci has some tips for how to adjust your life to this, including not taking early retirement to spend all your days at Costco, as tempting as that sounds. Facebook has taken a couple of self-imposed gut punches lately, in the form of news reports that it knows Instagram is detrimental to teenage girls' mental health and that it lets some super-users off the hook for posting toxic garbage. The takeaway here is that Facebook knows its algorithm for weeding out this toxicity, which is poisoning the whole body politic, doesn't work, writes Cathy O'Neil. But the company refuses to do anything about it, because that would involve hiring humans, and humans tend to want "money" and "dental benefits." This means it's long past time for Facebook's wafer-thin oversight board to finally thicken its skin and demand real change, writes Parmy Olson. These news reports, and fresh political outrage, give it some leverage. Further Techlash Reading: Amazon and Google customers should be in revolt over how ads are ruining their experiences. — Tae Kim Unwinding Evergrande is a huge problem for China because so many of its projects are unfinished and useless, writes Shuli Ren. Hope its creditors like empty parking lots!  In a world of decarbonization and deep investor disdain for fossil fuels, Chevron has a bit of an edge on Exxon, and that may be all it needs, writes Liam Denning.  We really don't want the military to be the last defender of democracy. — Kori Schake The number of people swarming to run for French president just helps Macron's chances. — Lionel Laurent Breaking up Wells Fargo would defeat the purpose by distracting the bank. — Paul Davies Coinbase made regulation even more likely by attacking the SEC. — Michelle Leder Figuring out where people will go when they flee climate change is key. — Peter Orszag Don't worry about the mu variant. — Sam Fazeli New best business-school list just dropped. Global warming will probably hit the tipping point of 1.5° C. How Peter Thiel gamed democracy to make tax-free billions. The first webcam was invented to watch a coffee pot. Airless tires are coming. Some survival tips for unplanned freefall. Area man lives as a hobbit. Sigh, PSA:  Notes: Please send airless tires and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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