SCOTUS Now Just 7 Obamacare Rescues Away From Getting One Free

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a unanimous ruling of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Common sense [spotted at the Supreme Court](. - Maybe it’s [time to go back to renting](. - The Fed [hasn’t satisfied its critics](. - China will [fail to control commodity prices](. Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the opposite of the ACA> Photographer: Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images SCOTUS With the Mostest Original Formula Saturday Night Live once had a [running gag]( on “Weekend Update” where Chevy Chase would announce, “This just in: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.” The Affordable Care Act has become something like the anti-Franco: It keeps not being dead. Its latest brush with the grave was a lawsuit by 13 conservative attorneys general that most experts laughed off as ridiculous, until it also kept not-dying, all the way to the very conservative Supreme Court. But [that court today agreed overwhelmingly the lawsuit was, in fact, ridiculous](. Only Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch could read it without cracking up. Noah Feldman takes heart from this ruling, evidence that in our polarized age there still exist some common-sense ideas on which even Sonya Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas can agree. This one just happens to keep the ACA alive. [Again](. Not that there isn’t division on the court, of course. In the day’s other big ruling, all nine judges agreed Philadelphia can’t force Catholic Social Services to put foster kids in gay families. But Noah Feldman, in a second column, points out that beneath the placid surface of these unanimous waters, [all nine justices were contorting themselves into impossible positions]( to lay the groundwork for future battles over religion and LGBTQ rights. Polarization is still not dead, either. Further Courts Reading: - Conservatives may grumble about Chief Justice John Roberts, but [his court is still pretty conservative](. —  Ramesh Ponnuru - A judge [blocking President Joe Biden’s freeze on oil leases]( is a reminder that an activist judiciary cuts both ways. — Noah Feldman Sponsored Content 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 Who Needs Houses Anyway? Everybody who owns a house knows it isn’t all porch swings and picket fences. It’s also termites and boilers that crap out in February. On the other hand, it’s also soul-crushingly expensive. Still: Homeownership is the American Dream, I am required by the Constitution to type. Or at least it had a strong American Dream argument, somewhere up until around the time we started slicing and dicing mortgages and selling them in bundles with AAA credit ratings. This was done primarily to make people rich, but a secondary goal was to make it easier for people to borrow money to buy houses. This and other advancements in home-buying technology made [housing much more liquid and therefore more expensive](, notes Karl Smith. The whole Rube Goldberg contraption did collapse for a while, temporarily taking house prices and the global economy down with it. But now the machine is back up and running, and houses are more expensive than ever. This puts the American Dream out of reach for many. But is that such a bad thing? Karl asks. At some point wouldn’t people be better off just paying rent than making nosebleed mortgage payments (and don’t forget, first-time homebuyers, you must pay for everything — termite removal, boiler repairs, even the dang trash cans — your landlord once handled)? An economy not dedicated to the worship of immovable money pits might be a more dynamic economy. Everybody’s Mad at the Fed The poor Federal Reserve just can’t win. Everybody has been mad at it for not taking inflation seriously enough. So yesterday it said “[OK FINE]( we get it, GOSH,” and acknowledged the economy is a bit more toasty now, meaning it can start to think about thinking about tightening financial conditions at some point. But this made markets [kinda sad](, and it didn’t satisfy the critics who say the Fed is still not serious enough about inflation. Bloomberg’s editorial board says the central bank won’t really be credible until it [tosses its new framework of prioritizing maximum employment](. Mohamed El-Erian warns [the Fed will always be playing catch-up to inflation]( otherwise.  You do have to hand it to the Fed for [picking the perfect moment to start edging toward the punch bowl]( while looking at its watch. John Authers writes that financial conditions before yesterday’s Fed meeting had in some ways never been easier, making its mild shift in stance much less painful: The Fed also has the benefit of watching [a real-time experiment in contrasting monetary policies]( in this freaky post-pandemic moment, writes Dan Moss: Brazil is trying to whip inflation now, while India is taking more of a Fed-like approach. We’ll know soon enough which strategy was the right one. Telltale Charts China’s latest effort to stem commodity prices will [fail, as government market interventions always do](, writes David Fickling. These include China’s own meddling with its strategic pork reserve in 2007. In other news, China has a strategic pork reserve. Further Reading [Russia’s refusal to take its own effective vaccine]( shows the limits of Vladimir Putin’s power. — Clara Ferreira Marques [CureVac’s Covid failure is not an indictment]( of mRNA technology. — Max Nisen Elizabeth Holmes may not be a sympathetic case, but [her losing attorney-client privilege shows how flawed]( the law is. — Stephen Carter Consider the [tax consequences of all the charities and GoFundMes]( you’re contributing to. — Alexis Leondis [Ronaldo’s “Bottlegate” reminds us of the risks]( of brands relying on individual influencers. — Andrea Felsted ICYMI [Juneteenth is now a holiday](. Student loan debt: It’s [not just for the youths anymore](. Titanium [stablecoin stabilizes at $0](. (Matt Levine has [more]( on this.) Kickers [Third-biggest diamond ever]( just dropped. (h/t Scott Kominers) Area woman celebrates [birth of great-great-great-grandchild](. Australia [has a mouse problem](. What if [the universe is open-ended](? Notes: Please send Crunchwrap Supremes 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