New York’s watery dystopian future is already here

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a drowned world of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [New York is drowning](. - California is [thirsting to death](. - A little [inflation could be good]( for us. - [RIP mutual funds](. They won’t be missed. Venice this ain’t. Photographer: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images North America The Bronx Is Up and The Battery’s 20 Feet Down Kim Stanley Robinson’s climate-fiction novel “[New York 2140](” depicts a New York City that is surprisingly happy despite being half-drowned. It’s Venice, basically, but with taller buildings, only some of which are collapsing. Seems cool and not nearly as depressing as, say, the “[Pyramid Song](” video. Then again, Robinson [deliberately]( set the novel in a time long after the transition from Dry New York to Soggy New York had already happened. That interregnum will be many magnitudes less happy and/or cool. And Hurricane Ida suggested [this transition has already begun](, Frank Wilkinson writes. New York’s big water problems are: - It is surrounded by the stuff, which will rise as global ice melts; - It built streets and foundations right on top of swamps and creeks and other waterways; and - Its infrastructure isn’t built to funnel away the sheer amount of wetness, from the [standpoint]( of water, Ida and other storms hopped up on global-warming amphetamines will bring. New York needs to keep water from reclaiming territory, or risk losing the subways to the [sewer alligators](. And it can’t wait for 2040, much less 2140, to figure out how. Read [the whole thing](. On the other coast, the problem isn’t too much water but to little. California’s droughts, heat waves and wildfires are [already hurting production in the world’s food basket](, writes Amanda Little. To cope, farmers are switching to reaping sunlight and planting carbon. That’s helpful and kind of cool. And we might as well embrace Kim Stanley Robinson-style optimism that humanity will eventually replace the food California stops growing. While we wait, though, the food prices and scarcity that result could strain the definition of “transitory.” Read the [whole thing](. Stagflation Watch! Has Anybody Seen the Stag? Edition One of the most-read stories on The Terminal this morning was that Goldman Sachs took out its tiniest X-Acto knife and trimmed its forecast for U.S. GDP growth to 5.6% this year and 4% next year, down from 5.7% and 4.4%. Oh no! This … doesn’t sound so bad? It makes you wonder where the “stag” in the “stagflation” everybody’s worrying about will come from. We’ve got the “flation” part coming out of our ears, of course, as we have written until we are sick of writing about it. But even this may not be so terrible. There’s a reason the past several Fed chairs have chased inflation like Ponce de León seeking the Fountain of Slightly Higher Prices. As Karl Smith writes, a [gently rising tide of wages, prices and interest rates lifts all]( people-boats and corporate-people-boats.  Oil prices soaring to $80 a barrel frightens all conditioned to fear such things. But as Bob Burgess writes,[the economy is much more capable of handling such prices]( than it was, say, 20 years ago, when they were traumatic to those of us in our formative years. Which isn’t to say [OPEC+ shouldn’t hurry up and give us more oil]( already, writes Julian Lee. It should, particularly because other producers aren’t in any rush to pump more and risk taking a beating from a hostile market — a [hostility that has nothing to do with ESG](, by the way, writes David Fickling. The chief culprit is OPEC+, just sitting there with all the oil the world needs, waiting to dump it on us. Telltale Charts Every market swoon sends more investors scurrying to the relative stability of ETFs, [rendering mutual funds obsolete](, writes Nir Kaissar. And good riddance, pretty much. California has lost a lot of jobs in the pandemic, but [gained GDP and income in return](, writes Justin Fox. Further Reading [ESG investment needs to do better at living up to its promises]( with more transparency and creativity. — Bloomberg’s editorial board [Facebook is stumbling into being the next Standard Oil](, the focus of public ire at Big Tech. — Niall Ferguson Henry Kravis and George Roberts stepping aside at KKR is [a sign of the times in private equity](. — Brian Chappatta U.S. [banks’ pandemic-era profit boom]( is ending. — Paul Davies This year’s Nobel Prize winners in economics [discovered real-world experiments that answered nagging questions](. — Scott Duke Kominers Many election losers have complained of being cheated. [None have taken it as far as Donald Trump]( and his supporters. — Jonathan Bernstein ICYMI Southwest Airlines [is short-staffed](. Elon [Musk tweeted at Jeff Bezos](. Baseball is [testing out ways to be less boring](. Kickers Area [lawnmower goes 143 mph](. (h/t Mike Smedley) There’s a [shadow penal system for struggling kids](. Area [capybaras want their expensive land back](. A [solar-powered aircraft flew for three weeks]( without landing. Notes:  Please send capybaras 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. 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