Dying on the job is no way to go

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us //link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/19490798.42703/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9ib3Bpbmlvbg/582c8673566a94262a8b49bdB357cb062 This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a commuted sentence of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Older Americans are [working longer, and dying]( on the job more often. - [Iron]( and [coal]( companies aren’t joining the rush to go green. - Trump’s Rosneft sanctions [punish Venezuela]( without [costing votes](. - Trump proves, again, that presidential [pardons are a bad idea](. Retirement sounds good right about now. Photographer: Construction Photography/Avalon/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Try Not to Work Till You Drop Once upon a time, working-class Americans routinely did this thing called “retire,” meaning they stopped working and spent the rest of their days tying fishing lures and tossing baseballs with the grandkids and whatnot. Of course, that was back when working-class Americans had these things called “pensions,” which helped pay for all the fishing-lure ingredients and baseball gear, along with whatever food, shelter and health care you needed until you punched out on the Big Clock. Today, better health care has people living and staying active for longer. And “pensions” are harder to find than land lines and people who witnessed Cleveland’s last World Series title. Along with the aging of the boomers, this means a rising percentage of [American workers are of what was once considered “retirement” age](, notes Justin Fox: This is great if you like your work and don’t much care for fishing or playing catch. But there are drawbacks. One pretty big one is that older people are dying at work more often, too: These deaths aren’t from natural causes, Justin notes, which leaves out, say, newsletter writers expiring at their keyboards. Older workers have always died at work more often than younger ones, and that may come down to older people staying in relatively risky physical jobs such as farming and ranching. One possible solution: Come up with a modern version of that “pension” thing. Read the [whole thing](. Further Workplace Demographic Reading: A stronger job market is [easing the student-loan problem]( by letting young people choose work over college. — Conor Sen Not Everybody’s Rushing to Greenwash The hot new thing for companies these days is going carbon neutral, mainly because of a deep concern for the environment, we’re sure, and maybe only a smidgen due to huge investors such as BlackRock Inc. threatening to pull their funding. But not every company is racing to go green. Take iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., which is one of the world’s biggest polluters, notes David Fickling: Somehow [climate activists have overlooked Fortescue](, but they won’t forever, David suggests. It has the means to clean up its act, and soon enough it will have the financial incentive. Glencore Plc, the world’s biggest coal exporter, is a couple of notches above Fortescue on that emissions chart. And it’s clinging to its dirty product, even as the BlackRocks and energy producers of the world reject the stuff. It’s not doing this out of Trumpian obstinance but simply because [coal is too profitable to abandon](, writes Clara Ferreira Marques. There are pockets of rising demand in Asia, and the money Glencore makes on coal could help pay for its eventual greening. Further Green-Investment Reading: Christine Lagarde’s idea of [excluding polluters from ECB bond purchases]( is dangerous favorite-picking. — Ferdinando Giugliano Trump Fires a Warning Shot at Rosneft It kind of got overlooked in the daily fire hose of news, but yesterday the Trump administration said it would sanction an arm of the Russian oil giant Rosneft for helping Venezuela export oil in violation of earlier sanctions. These new penalties will [make it more painful for Russia to do business]( with Venezuela, writes Eli Lake, and further pressure Nicolas Maduro to cede power. But Liam Denning describes these sanctions as less of a slap than a “slow, gentle caress.” President Donald Trump wants to [signal his allegiance to Maduro-hating Venezuelan-American]( voters — of which there are many in the swing state of Florida — while not punishing Rosneft enough to upset the oil market in an election year. If he’s re-elected, then that calculus could change. YOU Get a Pardon, and YOU Get a Pardon While he was sanctioning Rosneft with one hand yesterday, Trump was doling out clemency with the other. The 11 people he pardoned or gave commuted sentences to had little in common aside from, in the [words]( of the New York Times, being “rich, powerful and well-connected white men.” They were buddies of Trump or helped him advance various grievances or simply pleaded their cases on Fox News a lot, writes Jonathan Bernstein. He [doubts Trump was sending some clever signal]( with these pardons, as some Democrats fear, and argues they have gotten him into further hot water with Republicans. Presidential [pardons are almost never a good idea]( anyway, writes Noah Feldman. The power is a problematic relic of the monarchy, and the only remedy for its abuse is impeachment, which: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. One pardon went to former junk-bond king Michael Milken. He left prison 27 years ago and today has billions of dollars and a mostly restored reputation after decades of philanthropy. His prosecution (by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani) was probably too harsh, writes Joe Nocera, but this [latter-day pardon does him no real good](. Further Reading Trump’s crackdown on [undisclosed foreign donations]( to universities is a new front in his war on the elites. — Tyler Cowen Boris Johnson’s government seems [too happy to erect trade barriers with Europe]( without securing expanded U.K. trade with the rest of the world. — Lionel Laurent Johnson’s free spending [represents a counterrevolution]( to the ideologies of Thatcher and Reagan, as the far right co-opts leftist policies around the world. — Pankaj Mishra Trump Fed pick Judy Shelton claims she’s abandoned her beliefs about the gold standard and tight money. But her acolytes don’t buy it, and they’re [hurting her chances of confirmation](. — Ramesh Ponnuru Singapore’s [coronavirus response of maintaining order]( is looking like the best one. — Daniel Moss The Boy Scouts of America [shouldn’t be able to use Chapter 11]( to shield itself from sexual-abuse lawsuits. — Noah Feldman ICYMI Julian Assange’s lawyers say [Trump offered to pardon him]( if he “played ball.” Japan is becoming a [coronavirus hotbed](. Electrical [tape tricked a Tesla]( into speeding. Kickers FINALLY, a KFC-Crocs collaboration results in [chicken-bucket clogs](. (h/t Mike Smedley) A Western-style [diet can impair brain function](, a study has shown. How to collaborate with [people you don’t like](. Corporate [buzzwords are how workers pretend]( to be adults. Note: Please send KFC Crocs and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. 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