Let’s channel our inner bond market and worry less about inflation

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a focus drug of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The bond market is [fine with the jobs report](. - China wants [Hong Kong to forget Tiananmen](. - What if [Iran threw an election]( and nobody came? - Saudi Arabia may be [delusional about oil’s future](. The Jobs Report Is Whatever You Want It to Be In the sci-fi series “The Expanse,” people take [drugs]( that give them superhuman focus and perception. Apparently a lot of people already have these drugs here in the real world and take them just before they read the monthly jobs report. Because within minutes of the release, they have already digested the lengthy, detailed report and tweeted firm conclusions about it. Conveniently, those conclusions almost always match what these people already thought about the economy. To be fair, jobs reports are: - a collection of guesstimates that will be revised to within an inch of their lives - almost always a mishmash of conflicting signals even in normal months; and - beyond abnormal right now because of the pandemic. This month’s [report]( was no exception, with evidence to back up every possible argument about the economy. Think a labor shortage will trigger a wage-price inflationary spiral and [force the Fed to stab the economy to death](, as Richard Cookson does? You got backup in the shrinking labor force. Think the economy stinks? Disappointing payroll growth is your friend. Think the government is sheltering space aliens? Transportation and warehousing jobs jumped. Maybe the best advice in these and all other confusing times is simply to follow the bond market. It’s the smart one. Earlier this year, while the stock market was all a-drool about a new economic boom, the bond market [wasn’t]( so sure. Bonds took a moment to [consider this month’s jobs report and decided it was just about perfect](, writes Brian Chappatta — not too weak but also not too hot to make the Fed get all stabby. Sometimes interest rates are all the focus drugs you need. Photograph: CNN via Getty Images Photograph: CNN via Getty Images Tiananmen Square Will Be Harder to Forget in Hong Kong On this day 32 years ago, the Chinese government massacred hundreds or maybe thousands (nobody really knows) of pro-democracy protesters around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. It was a shameful day, and the government has responded with shame ever since, outlawing mentions and memorials of the event. Until recently, people in Hong Kong could still commemorate it freely. But as Beijing has squeezed its grip on the island, [it has tried to memory-hole Tiananmen Square there too](, writes Matthew Brooker. But people in Hong Kong are more accustomed to freedom, and it will be harder to make them forget. Further New Cold War Reading: President Joe Biden’s [corporate blacklist may be an olive branch]( to China. — Tim Culpan Today in Fake Elections That buzz you don’t feel in the air is excitement over Iran’s upcoming presidential election. It has less suspense, and more human-rights violations, than “[Baby Shark](.” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has a puppet, Ebrahim Raisi, who is sure to win in a blowout, Bobby Ghosh writes. The only question is how many Iranians will bother with this joke of an election. [Khamenei needs a big turnout to give it a veneer of legitimacy](. He might not get even that. Soccer will be on TV, for one thing. Once upon a time, [Iranian elections at least offered a dollop of hope]( for some change, writes Eli Lake. Those days are long gone. More than soccer, this is a big reason many Iranians will stay home. Further Iran Reading: Though it seems impossible, [Biden should aim for an Iran treaty with Senate approval]( so it can’t be tossed by the next president. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Telltale Charts Saudi Arabia calls the IEA’s oil outlook unrealistic, but [its own vision of the future is the one that seems detached from reality](, writes Liam Denning. The U.K.’s [strict new guidance on foreign travel is a bummer]( for vacationers and travel companies, writes Andrea Felsted. It could also drive up demand for domestic vacations, and prices with it. Further Reading Boeing is [its own worst enemy](. — Brooke Sutherland Once Skype was so dominant it became a verb. [Microsoft slept and let Zoom supplant it](. — Tim O’Brien Donald Trump’s coup threat is [the sort of thing that starts civil wars](. — Jonathan Bernstein Carmakers are [just as ripe for a green activist push as Exxon was](. — Anjani Trivedi Regulators must come up with a way to [protect fund investors from the next crisis](. — Mark Gilbert For wealthy investors who want inflation protection in bulk, [TIPS are a better option than Series I savings bonds](. — Alexis Leondis ICYMI Facebook [banned Trump until the next election](. Not everybody in the GOP is [cheering Trump’s return](. The bottom 90% of Americans [borrow from the top 1%](. For sale: One [B-52s-owned Catskills hotel](. Kickers Nineteen million years ago, [sharks almost went extinct](. (h/t Scott Kominers) [Five stamps + one coin = $37 million](. Chicken nugget shaped like an [“Among Us” character sells for $100,000](. Vulture’s best [TV shows]( and [albums of 2021]( so far. Golden nugget. Notes: Please send chicken nuggets 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. 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. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022