Your RTO checklist: new duds, coffee mug, vaccine card

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a back-to-school sale of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Back-to-work is [the new back-to-school](. - The Fed has no choice now [but to dial back stimulus](. - Mark [Zuckerberg won’t run the Matrix](. - [Big Tech and Warren Buffett]( have this one weird thing in common. First day at the office pre-pandemic vs. first day at the office post-pandemic. Sources: AMC, Chicago Tribune What Will You Wear on Your First Day Back? Maybe you still remember the thrill of going back to school after summer break and getting a heap of supplies with that new-Trapper-Keeper smell, along with a fresh wardrobe (unless your parents made your clothes, in which case I can recommend a therapist who has helped me a lot). Now, thanks to a deadly pandemic, many grown-ups can relive that experience this fall, or maybe winter, or maybe 2025, or [whenever]( we go back to the office after an 18- or 24- or 60-month break. Social media and Zoom have made “What I Did on My Covid Vacation” reports unnecessary. But [we’ll still need new clothing and probably new office gear](, writes Andrea Felsted. Any food you left in your desk in March 2020 may have turned its contents into an “[Annihilation](” theme park. And your post-Covid body may be just as alien to your pre-Covid clothes. If and when we go back to offices en masse, the retail and fashion industries will have a new selling season possibly as big as the back-to-school one. Workplaces could refill more quickly and safely if employers knew everybody breathing in their elevators and break rooms was vaccinated. And many companies have started imposing vaccine mandates for that reason. But not enough of them, writes Tim O’Brien. [Too many are still worried about offending employees]( who think vaccines are a Communist plot or whatever. Public health and the economy demand we stop coddling those employees. A relative dearth of such anti-vaxxers may help explain why the [U.K. is seeing Covid cases fall]( despite reopening in the middle of a delta outbreak, writes Therese Raphael. The U.K.’s experience has inspired hope that maybe America’s delta fever will break soon, too. But we could be in for a harsh education on that — harsher even than going to school in a shirt your mom made. Further Back-to-Normal Reading: Delta [hasn’t totally wrecked the travel recovery](, but has delayed it. — Brooke Sutherland Powell’s Progress Nearly a million Americans found some kind of work last month, at home or otherwise, as the unemployment rate tumbled to its lowest level since this nightmare started. The good news is the labor market is healing. The less-good news, depending on your perspective, is that this means [the Fed has no choice now but to start]( talking about cutting back on its bond-buying, writes Robert Burgess. The Fed has said it wants to see “substantial further progress” on getting people back to work before it starts tapering, and this sure seems to qualify.  Further Fed Reading: The identity of the [next Fed chair almost doesn’t matter](. Continuity is basically guaranteed. — Dan Moss Across the Metaverse Someday we won’t have to bother leaving our nutrient baths to go into offices or schools at all, but instead live out existence as avatars in a perpetually online Metaverse. This not-at-all-dystopian vision seems to be an obsession of Mark Zuckerberg, who talks about it an awful lot. But if the Facebook founder dreams of being the Architect of this Matrix, then [he needs to step up his virtual-reality game](, writes Tae Kim. The company uses replacement-level chips and is hopelessly behind on software. Some other tech giant will probably get to build the system that uses humans as batteries. Further Dystopian Tech Reading: The [next financial crisis could be brewing in stablecoins](, fintech and other innovations. — Andy Mukherjee Telltale Charts Berkshire Hathaway has too much cash and nothing to do with it, writes Tara Lachapelle. In this way, at least, [Big Tech companies are rapidly turning into Berkshire]( Hathaway. Thanks to soaring stock prices, [hedge funds are having another good year]( and even starting to attract money again, writes Chris Hughes. Further Reading Instead of more eviction moratoriums, [renters need direct assistance, now](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board The infrastructure bill’s “Buy America” provisions [won’t give us the best infrastructure](, but will make it more expensive. — Allison Schrager Belarus’ Alexander [Lukashenko keeps testing his limits](, a sign of how precarious his position has become. — Clara Ferreira Marques Barcelona fell victim to its 100% fan ownership, which let [Lionel Messi’s contract get too bloated to handle](. — Alex Webb ICYMI The EU may [slap travel curbs on Americans again](. The [Taliban is advancing](. The [age of cheap natural gas]( is over. Kickers Area man uses [huge skeleton to scare the unvaccinated](. [Giraffes are deeper]( than you think. (h/t Scott Kominers for the first two kickers) Japanese zoo has its [first female monkey boss](. [Machu Picchu is older]( than we thought. Vulture’s [best movies of 2021]( so far. Notes:  Please send natural gas and complaints to Mark “Monkey Boss” 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