Enjoy safe markets, food and workplaces while they last

Plus: Markets are in trouble. [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an administrative state of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Kiss regulations goodbye](, maybe. - [Kiss stock prices goodbye](, maybe. - [Victory in Ukraine]( is hard to define. - [Worst SPAC deal]( ever? RIP, the Administrative State A lot of the modern protections Americans take for granted, from food and water that doesn’t constantly make us sick to a financial system not entirely built on rolling Ponzi schemes, result from regulations put in place by government agencies. Legal wonks call this the “administrative state,” and it is a relatively new construct. That means it’s not in the Constitution, exactly, but back around the Depression we agreed it would be a good idea for Congress to give those government agencies the authority to handle problems Congress was too busy or incompetent to handle by itself. A golden age of safer markets, food, water, air, workplaces, drugs and more ensued. But there were a lot of people at the time, including conservatives and representatives of Big E Coli and the Ponzi-scheme-industrial complex, who wanted to wreck the administrative state. They’ve been trying and failing ever since, as presidents from Barack Obama to Richard Nixon made the system even bigger and more powerful. Now the tides are turning. The Fifth Circuit yesterday ruled against the SEC in an enforcement case against a hedge fund manager. It said the agency went overboard in slapping the man with a huge fine without giving him a jury trial. So far, so understandable. But Matt Levine notes the panel also threw into its opinion [a bit about the unconstitutionality of the entire administrative state](. Uh-oh! This is a major win for the throwback crowd and could be a sign of more to come, Matt writes, especially with potentially five or more sympathetic justices now on the Supreme Court. We may still be a long way from rolling Ponzi schemes. But the whole raison d’etre of the SEC — not to mention the EPA, FDA, OSHA, you name the acronym — is suddenly in doubt, along with that golden age of safety. Read the [whole thing](. Always Look on the Dark Side: Markets Edition The stock market took a break from melting down today, probably just to rest up for its next big conniption fit. John Authers studied the charts of yesterday’s clown massacre at the rodeo fire and saw evidence markets are [pricing in a good old-fashioned deflationary recession](, instead of stagflation. Bonds rose while retail stocks and oil prices fell, as [God and nature]( intended. So that seems nice? But John also worries the synchronization of the market bloodshed reminds him of what we saw in the run-up to the financial crisis. And Mohamed El-Erian warns the [selloffs could get deep enough]( to trigger contagion through the rest of finance and the real economy. Jonathan Levin points out corporate earnings expectations are still [way, way too high for market pricing](, at a time in the cycle when such forecasts are particularly unreliable. The irony here is that, if you think about what’s going on in the economy and markets right now, Conor Sen writes, a lot of it seems kind of … good? Like [exactly what we’ve been wishing would happen]( for years? Housing and crypto prices are no longer ridiculous, for example. Consumers are switching their spending from pandemic-era goods hoarding back to services. Interest rates are no longer negative. But this may turn out to be one of those “[I wish I could fly](” moments. Ukraine Victory: Will We Know It When We See It? The Senate today overwhelmingly [passed]( a $40 billion aid bill for Ukraine, which is good news for Ukraine, though it’s worth wondering how long this money will last. The war could go on for quite a while and require many more aid bills. Leonid Bershidsky warns peace won’t happen until both Russia and Ukraine realize [they can’t gain anything from fighting](. At the moment, both countries still think they can achieve more. Even when the war ends, unless Russia joins the EU in what would be the shocker headline of the century, the peace will be tenuous. Bonus War Reading: - Ukraine should be [leery of British politicians]( trying to use it to bolster their own standing. — Pankaj Mishra - The war has [disrupted noble-gas supplies]( key to global manufacturing. We need a better system. — Izabella Kaminska Telltale Charts Chris Bryant has identified what could be the [Pets.com of the ludicrous SPAC bubble](: window maker View Inc., whose setting a bunch of investor money on fire was merely the opening act of its circus of fail. More like widow maker View, am I right? I am. Further Reading [Jeff Bezos is right and President Joe Biden is wrong]( about corporate taxes and government spending. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Everybody, including China, has a stake in [cracking down on rogue fishermen]( stripping the oceans clean of fish. — Adam Minter A new [anti-ESG asset manager indulges in some flawed arguments]( and hypocrisy of its own. — Liam Denning Quantitative [rules for diversity hiring don’t work](. It’s more important to change culture and processes. — Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio The benefits of taking time off are proven, and [Goldman is right to make people take it](. — Sarah Green Carmichael [Don’t freak out about monkeypox]( just yet. — Sam Fazeli and Therese Raphael Despite a recent study, [SIDS is still a mystery]( that needs a lot more funding. — Lisa Jarvis ICYMI China is in talks to [buy more Russian oil](. Biden [might meet with MBS](. Apple is close to [launching a VR headset](. Would you ride the [subway for a free meal](? Kickers Area man [gambles away his town’s Covid funds](. (h/t Scott Kominers) The Voyager probe is [sending back strange data](, just as “Star Trek” [predicted](. We [eat a credit card’s worth of microplastics]( each week. Seems bad? [Puberty is starting earlier]( than ever, surely not because of those nutritious microplastics. Notes: Please send strange data and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. 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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