The housing market’s fever shows more signs of breaking

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a bankruptcy filing of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Housing is [starting to cool off](. - Health care is [broken: Alzheimer’s edition](. - America should [vaccinate Iranians](. - The stock market’s [halcyon days are ending](. Housing Fever: The Breakening In “The Sun Also Rises,” Mike Campbell famously says he went bankrupt “Two ways: Gradually, then suddenly.” The housing market’s mania might end similarly. We’re getting evidence of the “gradually” part, anyway. Last month Conor Sen pointed out homebuilders were responding to exorbitant lumber costs by just [dropping]( their toolbelts and grabbing a sandwich. This isn’t what you do if you think you’re about to sell a lot of houses at high prices. Now Gary Shilling has found a few [more hints of a slowdown](, from the rising number of homes on the market to a drop in permits for new construction to consumers balking at ludicrous prices: Gary also notes the pandemic trends driving the market recently — stimulus money, plunging interest rates, New York City being [dead]( forever — are stalling or reversing. There may soon be a better time for you to buy that sprawling New Jersey estate. Sponsored Content The power of PayPal online, now in person. PayPal gives your business a way to accept touch-free, in-person payments. Generate your QR code from the app, then display it on your device or print it out. No new equipment required. [Download the app.]( Customer must have PayPal account and app to pay. PayPal Our So-Called Health-Care System Max Nisen wrote earlier this week that the FDA shouldn’t have [approved]( Biogen’s new Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. There’s just no proof the thing works the way it’s supposed to. Biogen has been given infinity years to run more trials, but in the meantime it will sell the drug at $56,000 a year. Side effects of paying $56,000 a year for what could be a fancy Flintstone vitamin may include night terrors, day terrors, wealth hemorrhaging and Sudden Asset Disappearance Syndrome (SADS).  This episode highlights [two specific problems with America’s problem-rich health-care system](, writes Bloomberg’s editorial board. First, the FDA is way too willing to let iffy drugs on the market. Second, once those iffy drugs are on the market, Medicare is prohibited by law from scoffing whenever it’s presented with a bill for $56,000 or whatever for them. So to recap: - Drug maybe doesn’t work. - Drug costs $56,000. - Taxpayers must eat the cost of drug. Great system! Give Iran the Vaccine International diplomacy is usually a terrible game of compromises and impossible choices. Rarely do cost-free wins come along. This is especially true when the diplomacy involves Iran, a country that, whew, where to begin? But President Joe Biden has an opportunity for a rare double-birdie in diplomacy putt-putt, and it involves Iran. Eli Lake writes Biden should offer to [give a whole bunch of Covid-19 vaccines to Iran]( with no strings attached. This would: - Fight the pandemic. - Let the Iranian people know America doesn’t think they’re the enemy. - Save lives. - Embarrass China and Russia, which have failed to deliver vaccines to Iran as promised. - Stop Covid-19. That’s a whole lot of win in one easy-opening package. Telltale Charts We all cooed about retail investors’ remarkable patience when markets blew up last year. But maybe they were patient mainly because they’ve been [conditioned to expect quick recoveries, high returns and low volatility](, writes Nir Kaissar. Those days are coming to an end. With $21 trillion in debt, the U.S. [government needs a credible Fed]( to help keep interest rates low, writes Brian Chappatta. That could include a demonstrable willingness to fight inflation. Further Reading Merrick [Garland’s Donald Trump defense is knee-jerk institutionalism](, and not in a good way. — Noah Feldman GameStop’s results and new hires suggest [the shorts were wrong about it](. — Tae Kim Decentralized finance is [the best reason for crypto’s existence](. — Tyler Cowen We [shouldn’t punish victims of cybercrime]( by making paying ransoms illegal. — Stephen Carter What you need to know [when you need to roll over your 401(k)](. Step one: It’s hard. — Alexis Leondis ICYMI Steve Cohen finally [sold his Manhattan condo above asking](. There’s a [bull market in earthquakes](, thanks to fracking. Mar-a-Lago is the [center of the GOP universe](. Kominers’s Conundrums Hint Tonight's your last chance to identify the song of the summer in our [playlist puzzle](! If you're having trouble figuring out how to start solving it, maybe look to see if any of the song titles listed sound familiar — and if they do, does anything look like it might be missing? Kickers Sheepdog [ejected from car lands in dream job](. Area woman [gives birth to 10 babies](. It’s official: [The Southern Ocean is the fifth ocean](. Lego made [a working typewriter](. Notes: Please send Lego typewriters 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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