Here we go again with the empty grocery store shelves

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a purpose-driven company of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Groceries are scarce [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a purpose-driven company of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Groceries are scarce]( yet again. - Maybe [doing good is good for business](. - Markets may [not have fully on-boarded]( what the Fed is doing. - Microsoft might be [making a $69 billion mistake](. Omicron Ate Your Groceries Hope you stocked up on flour and [bucatini]( when you had the chance. As if taking lives, filling hospitals, and closing schools and businesses weren’t enough, the [omicron wave is also making groceries scarce again](, writes Andrea Felsted. Food-sector workers and truck drivers are calling in sick, keeping food from being packaged and delivered. Meanwhile, quarantining Covid patients are making and eating comfort food, driving up demand. Et voila: empty shelves. Again. Hey, at least inflation will make people buy less stuff. Yay? Purpose-Driven Companies This is still one of my favorite tweets of all time: I don’t have time to go into all the reasons it’s so funny to me, but it came to mind today when reading various responses to Larry Fink’s admonition that companies should have a “social purpose” besides making a profit. In real life these days, many companies have as goal No. 2, if not No. 1a, saving the world’s oceans and otherwise bettering society, as Larry Fink would seem to prefer. Adrian Wooldridge argues this is a bad idea, writing [companies should limit themselves to goal No. 1]( in the tweet above. Anything more, in his judgment, risks misallocating capital and relying on corporations to solve social ills better left to politicians. Ah, but what if politicians don’t solve those social ills, either? Take climate change, arguably the biggest social ill of our time, in that it threatens the existence of “society.” In the absence of sustained political effort to fight it, we often fall back on companies to do the job. Tesla, though seeded with sackfuls of government subsidies, has mainstreamed electric vehicles under the leadership of a hyper-capitalist CEO. Even Exxon Mobil, after decades of cheerleading for Team Drain the Oceans, now has net-zero emissions goals. You might call them greenwashing or argue they don’t go far enough. But Liam Denning points out [the signal Exxon is sending](, for the rest of us to stop relying so much on its core product, is meaningful. And again, it’s not as if Exxon, Unilever, Nike or any other supposedly “woke” company has been hijacked by Greenpeace or leftist Twitter. Capitalists are still firmly in charge. As Matt Levine points out, what Fink is really saying is that [being a responsible member of society]( — by, say, choosing to not actively poison customers, mistreat workers or drain the world’s oceans to find and kill God — is a pretty reliable path to long-term profitability.  Bonus Corporate-Purpose Reading: Iberdrola shows [being green doesn’t always equal good governance](. — Javier Blas Tightening? What Tightening? With the Nasdaq down 7% in less than three weeks and 10-year Treasury yields hitting their highest levels since the pandemic began, you can’t exactly say financial markets are thrilled the Federal Reserve is about to start draining their precious, precious free money. At the same time, you can’t call this a panic yet, either. Allison Schrager points out [raising the risk-free interest rate]( is the biggest threat investors face. But investors are, for the most part, stoic about it. Mohamed El-Erian has [some theories on why this might be]( — the vastness of the liquidity ocean that must be drained, fear of an imminent recession, pure denial — and warns markets are wandering into a minefield of possible rude awakenings. Bonus Central-Bank Reading: [Turkey must start ratcheting up interest rates](, and fast. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Telltale Charts A common argument against forgiving student loans is that it would only help rich borrowers. In fact, [poor and Black households could benefit the most](, write Carl Romer and Andre Perry. Younger Americans are [less likely to get vaccinated](, writes Justin Fox, and they are paying the price. Further Reading [Microsoft could be making a huge mistake]( paying $69 billion for scandal-plagued Activision Blizzard. — Tae Kim [Credit Suisse still needs change](, even if Antonio Horta-Osorio wasn’t the right guy to deliver it. — Paul J. Davies A recent [Ukraine cyberattack has many hallmarks]( of a devastating Russian attack in 2015. — Parmy Olson [Last year’s top stock-picker]( bet heavily on semiconductors. — Matt Winkler It’s far [too early to judge President Joe Biden’s performance](. — Jonathan Bernstein The U.S. should [make private companies reveal more financial information](, as the U.K. and Europe do. — Chris Bryant Easy retail returns are becoming a [massive financial and environmental problem](. — Adam Minter ICYMI [Four Pfizer doses aren’t enough]( to fight off omicron infection. At least omicron could make [future Covid waves less awful](. [Lions]( and [hamsters]( caught Covid, oh my. Kickers Area town to [fight crow infestation]( with laser beams. (h/t Alistair Lowe) Area DAO overpays for book, [learns hard lessons about intellectual property]( law. Scientists find [evidence of non-random DNA mutations](. [Cats are using Starlink satellite dishes]( as warming beds. Notes: Please send laser beams 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]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022