| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a buy-now, pay-later plan of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Back in March, we reintroduced you to the decider at Standard & Poor's who shook the Downgrade Stick at the credit rating of the United States of America back in 2011, during another pointless debt-ceiling fight. He had zero regrets about it, which was good to hear, because nobody else has lost a second of sleep about it either. In the decade since that non-momentous event, traders and governments and well-heeled schoolchildren have only grown ever more eager to lend money to the AA-rated Uncle Sam, writes Matthew Winkler. In fact, only Europe — a place that had its own spot of credit bother a decade ago — has even come close to matching the returns on U.S. Treasury bonds in that time:  Because it's a year that ends in a number, there is another pointless debt-ceiling fight happening in Washington right now. If the country should default on its debt, there will be a lot of stuff to worry about. Losing another notch or two on its credit rating will be near the bottom of the list, right down there with resetting the national "Days Without Sovereign Default" sign to zero.  But the U.S. of A. is a special case, with a large economy, military and global reserve currency. Credit ratings still matter for those of us without such things, which we sometimes collectively forget. In a troubling echo of the "fog a mirror, get a house" times just before the financial crisis, apps and banks are piling into the whole "buy now, pay later" craze. It's basically layaway, but for Gen Z. And investors are shoveling a lot of money to the lenders, writes Paul J. Davies. But there is a risk that all of these debts go bad at once, stinging banks, apps, investors and well-heeled schoolchildren alike. There are safeguards. But credit ratings aren't among them. A week ago, we learned Facebook is aware Instagram breaks teenage psyches by advancing poisonous value systems and impossible beauty standards. So naturally, Facebook is walling off Instagram to young users until it can figure out how to safeguard them. Ha ha, no. In fact, it's still getting ready to launch Instagram4Kidz (not the real name), a social network aimed at the under-13 set, despite the frantic howls of everyone that it should stop, just stop, for the love of God and all that's holy. Facebook claims Elmo's Insta World (again, not the real name) will be designed to protect children. But Bloomberg's editorial board points out Facebook has a track record of child protection roughly on par with those '70s babysitters who dropped acid while the kids played with the stove. It's time to shut down Baby's First Thirst Trap or whatever it's called and start clamping down even more on the harm Instagram is doing to kids. Bonus Social-Media Reading: Twitter keeps promising lots of new features, but it's still mostly the same old Twitter. — Tae Kim The good news: Evergrande Group isn't Lehman Brothers. The bad news: The background to Evergrande's failure and bailout could be permanently slower economic growth, writes John Authers.  Xi Jinping this week told the UN his country would no longer finance coal power plants abroad. This was not the big sacrifice Xi made it seem, writes David Fickling. China's biggest customers were already bailing out of coal anyway, given the lower costs of renewables.  It took two massive global crises for FDR to convince a cautious and conservative populace to change. — Noah Smith The AUKUS sub deal is an example of the kind of coalitions needed to confront China. — Hal Brands Elizabeth Warren is right; financial regulators have no business owning financial stocks. — Mark Gilbert Not long ago, Exelon didn't want a bailout. Now it's getting one. It's the story of today's power market. — Liam Denning Former intelligence officials went to help Gulf State governments fight off hackers. Now they're spying on innocent people. — Bobby Ghosh The Fed suggested it would start tapering QE soon. Boris Johnson trolled France. How bad will global warming affect your area? There's a model for that. To fight a blue catfish invasion, fishermen are doing something shocking. (They're shocking them.) (h/t Judy Lowery) RIP to Reuben Klamer, creator of The Game of Life. (h/t Ellen Kominers) FINALLY: There's a Sexy Bernie Sanders Halloween costume. (h/t Scott Kominers) Kids these days don't know how computer files work. Humanity is early in the universe. So will we be the grabby aliens?  Notes: Please send blue catfish fillets and feedback to Mark Gongloff at markgongloff@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. |
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