Inflation is under control, aside from all this inflation

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an inflation index of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Inflation anxiety is here to stay](. - So is [vaccine hesitancy](. - [SPACs may be peaking](. - [Hedge funds are back](. Inflation Watch! Long ago, when the world was very young and the cell phones were very large, a terrible beast called inflation laid waste to the land. Then it was slain by the hero Paul of Volcker, and its corpse became an aesthetically pleasing hill covered in wildflowers. But the people never forgot inflation, and at every tremor of the earth and spending of the government dollar they feared it would rise again. But it never did. Then came the great plague of 2020/2021/infinity, which was like a comet driving inflation’s corpse deep underground. There, the people feared, it would gather enough geothermal power to return to life. They doubted their new protector, Jay of Powell, would be able to contain it this time. Sure enough, the beast’s corpse is bouncing back out of the earth now, because physics: This was entirely to be expected, Brian Chappatta writes: If inflation falls by a zillion percent one year, then the year-over-year comparisons the next year will be harrowing. The question now is [whether there is enough energy to revive the inflation beast](. Probably, uh, not? But the signs still aren’t exactly reassuring to those [born nervous](. Government spending, Fed stimulus, supply bottlenecks, wage pressures and more all tell stories that will keep the villagers nervously eyeballing that no-longer-aesthetically-pleasing hill for a while. Further Inflation Reading: The [CPI index has always been an approximation at best](, and frequently used for political ends. — Stephen Mihm Paid Post The power of PayPal online, now in person. Give your small business an easy way to accept touch-free, in-person payments. Create a unique QR code with the PayPal app and display it on your device or as a printout in store. [Download the app.]( Customer must have PayPal account and app to pay. PayPal Vaccine Worries: Remember Not to Panic As if we didn’t already have enough vaccine hesitancy in this country, the CDC and FDA today put Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccinations on hold over a handful of episodes of blood clotting. Too many people already thought, [incorrectly](, of the J&J shot as the “lesser” shot. How will they feel about it now? The clotting risk is vanishingly small — 6 cases out of more than 7 million doses administered so far. Birth control, smoking, long airplane rides and, you know, Covid-19 are far bigger blood-clot risks. But Sam Fazeli points out [the very rare episodes in this case were harder to treat]( and potentially deadlier than those others. We may yet need to steer some higher-risk patients to other vaccines. Fortunately there are [plenty]( of those vaccines around — more than enough of the so-far clot-free Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to cover everybody, apparently. And you can certainly go too far in criticizing health officials for their decision, as a certain [ex-president]( did, accusing the FDA of wanting to “look important” and having a secret crush on Pfizer. Still, it’s hard not to feel the FDA’s “[abundance of caution” standard here is actually an overabundance](, writes Karl Smith, especially when Covid variants are driving cases higher and killing hundreds of Americans daily. Karl believes the FDA is too cautious generally, which is keeping not only vaccines out of arms but also other potentially life-saving treatments off the market. At the very least, health officials have a lot of PR work to do once they release the J&J shot back into the wild. Further Vaccine Reading: - India’s [arrogance and bureaucracy has caused it to fall behind]( in vaccinations. — Mihir Sharma - Today’s Supreme Court will probably [declare vaccine passports unconstitutional](. — Noah Feldman Champagne SPAC-ernova Our long national SPACmare will soon reach a crescendo with the biggest SPAC merger in history, which will put a piece of the Asian ride-hailing app Grab in public hands. To [call Grab the Uber of Asia is to do an injustice]( to its ambitions, writes Tara Lachapelle; its aim is to pretty much be the cradle-to-grave app of Asia and maybe also the world. This is an appropriately splashy intro to many of us. Still, Matt Levine points out, [the SPAC-y part of this SPAC is really a speck](, raising just $500 million of the company’s $40 billion valuation. The other $4 billion comes from massive institutional investors, like in a boring old IPO (ask your parents). The blank-check company Grab is merging with is just a vehicle to tow it onto public markets. People can’t get enough of those tow trucks, though, so the [SEC is finally starting to rouse from its 15-year slumber about SPACs](, notes Chris Bryant. The agency’s recent squinty-eyed pronouncements won’t stop the champagne SPAC-ernova, exactly, but they will slow it down. And that’s a good thing. Telltale Charts [Hedge funds are mounting a long-overdue comeback]( by making the right style choices at the right time, writes Nir Kaissar. [Europe’s oil majors are significantly more pessimistic about the outlook]( for oil than their American counterparts and have governed themselves accordingly, writes Liam Denning. Further Reading President Joe [Biden’s executive actions to curb gun violence are necessary]( but insufficient. Congress must act. — Bloomberg’s editorial board The big lesson of the first 100 days of Brexit is [the EU and U.K. must be friendlier to each other](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Biden must [stand up to Putin massing on Ukraine’s border](. — James Stavridis The [build-to-rent industry could be the answer to NIMBYism]( that keeps housing scarce and expensive. — Conor Sen There’s [no such thing as a free lunch]( when it comes to government spending. — Michael R. Strain [London’s West End retail Mecca has been hollowed out](, but that’s an opportunity for other retailers. — Andrea Felsted The Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern railroad merger [deserves some extra regulatory scrutiny](. — Brooke Sutherland ICYMI [The stuck ship is stuck again](, in a different way. Tax cheats [cost the IRS $1 trillion a year](. Charles [Schwab accidentally put $1.2 million]( in a woman’s Fidelity account. Kickers The [world’s longest rabbit is missing](. (h/t Ellen Kominers) A Portland theater has [played “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” to a nearly empty house]( for 54 straight weeks. A Russian governor admits he [faked Yeti sightings to boost tourism](. (h/t Scott Kominers for the past two kickers) Israel may have [destroyed Iranian centrifuges]( simply by pulling the plug on them. Notes: Please send $1.2 million and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@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. 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