Lessons from a liquidation

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a free waterway of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The [Archegos Capital postmortem]( has begun. - The Ever Given’s successors [will be ever larger](. - Jobs data are especially bleak for [Black and Hispanic working-class women](. It’s Time to Take Stock of Archegos As Wall Street picks through the wreckage of the Archegos Capital implosion, my colleagues at Bloomberg Opinion have been pondering the larger lessons. John Authers runs his rule over the inevitable debate about regulating financial innovation while preserving a free market. He counsels against blaming derivatives for the dastardly — or plain dumb — things people do with them, but he argues that [everyone stands to benefit from greater transparency](. Elisa Martinuzzi looks closely at the circumstances that led Credit Suisse to bet big on the likes of Bill Hwang and Lex Greensill, and identifies a [predilection for unbridled risk-taking]( that emanates from the very top of the bank. And Brian Chappatta notes that another major Archegos backer, Goldman Sachs, may emerge relatively unscathed from the mess, but he [cautions against smugness](. The fact that banks were willing to do business with Hwang, who was charged with insider trading less than a decade ago, is not reassuring. Further Reading: - What it all means for the [streaming ambitions of ViacomCBS and Discovery](, two of Hwang’s big bets. — Tara Lachapelle - Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. The Archegos calamity is [just a losing trade by a very rich guy](. — Aaron Brown Big Boats Are Getting Bigger At the start of the weeklong Suez Canal crisis, writers and editors cast around for outsize man-made structures to capture the scale of the container ship blocking the waterway. It was variously described as longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, larger than the Empire State Building, and 15 times as heavy as the Brooklyn Bridge. Now that thousands of news photos, videos and memes have fixed the bigness of the big boat in the public consciousness, it can handily serve as a measure for the next generation of supersized vessels, which will be [even bigger than the Ever Given](. As David Fickling explains, the economies of scale overrule any cautionary impact of last week’s crisis: Container for container, bigger ships are more fuel-efficient. They also defray their huge capital costs quicker by moving a larger number of containers per sailing. That’s why South Korean and Chinese shipyards are currently assembling ships that can carry 20% more cargo than the one responsible for the world’s heaviest traffic jam. People whose job it is to predict such things say it won’t be long before ships carrying 50% more cargo than the Ever Given are plying the seas. For all that container carriers have brought down shipping costs, however, Peter R. Orszag argues that it’s time to address [the dangers these crucial ships pose to the environment](. Bonus Reading: The next threat to the Suez Canal could come [from terrorism or cyber-attacks](. — Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway Telltale Charts Much of the media coverage of the so-called “she-cession” has focused on professional-class women. But the pandemic has been especially [devastating for working-class Black and Hispanic women](, report Justin Fox and Elaine He. Further Reading How [Scott Stringer would run New York](. — Howard Wolfson Twenty years after the Concorde’s last flight, supersonic travel is returning. [Regulators should get out of the way.]( — Bloomberg’s editorial board The [SEC says it’s serious about climate change](. We’ve heard that before. — Michelle Leder Let’s resolve to remain [obsessed with cleaning]( long after the pandemic is over. — Sarah Green Carmichael Suez — the company, not the canal — is blocked, and it [needs investors to act as tugboats](. — Chris Hughes Don’t let their reasonableness over pandemic relief measures fool you: [The Republicans are still the party of No](. — Jonathan Bernstein Caught in the geopolitical crossfire, [H&M should hang tight in China](. — Michael Schuman Can Italy [spend the 200 billion euros]( it is about to receive from the EU?  — Rachel Sanderson Airlines raised billions through [debt deals backed by frequent-flier programs](. Shareholders may yet regret this. — Brooke Sutherland and Brian Chappatta ICYMI [London apartment values]( are on a post-pandemic rebound. China is accelerating a push to [clean up its steel industry](. Oh, look: [a postal service that pays dividends.]( How to tell [whether WFH is good for the environment.]( Kickers Nike is not amused by [satanic sneakers.]( Humans could evolve to [produce their own venom](. Mafia fugitives shouldn’t [post cooking videos on YouTube]( ... … and should think twice about [getting Covid-19 treatment](. Notes: Please send odes or oaths to Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](.  Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. 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