Target tries to save itself By putting everything on sale

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a 30%-off sale of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Target needs retail therapy. Ne [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a 30%-off sale of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Target]( needs retail therapy. - [New York]( needs a publicist. - America does not need a [monarchy](. - The GOP needs you to [forget about the climate](. Target Deals Uh-oh: [Target is having its worst time in the stock market since 1987](: Andrea Felstead writes that the retailer has cut its outlook yet again, due to “a glut of inventory” and “a rapid shift away from pandemic purchasing patterns.” Target’s home page this afternoon tells the grim tale: That is a total of eight “% off” mentions and six “deals” that aren’t to be missed. The story here is in some ways pretty simple: Retailers spent the entirety of 2021 looking at empty shelves, wondering whether any of their L.O.L. Surprise! Doll orders would actually make it out of the shipping container nightmare alive. So they got a little impatient and just started to place other orders — [Barbie Zoologists](!? — hoping something, anything would arrive. So now these stores are swimming in a sea of mediocre merchandise just as Jamie Dimon’s [contested “economic hurricane”]( approaches landfall. Target is choosing to clear its racks through sales in the hope it can acquire new inventory that customers actually want to buy. It’s a gamble that just might pay off. Bonus Inflation Reading: [A soft economic landing]( might not be so soft for companies or investors. — John Authers New York Is Weirdly Safe New York City gets a pretty bad rap for being a wretched hive of murderers, rapists and the like. Part of this stereotype is historically derived: Grand Central in the ‘80s and ‘90s was a toxic stew of equal parts cigarette smoke, graffiti and crack. But over the past 40 years, things have changed. Gone are the days of mass burglaries. Instead, New Yorkers volunteer to be robbed by “[face gyms](” and hour-long wait times for Aimé Leon Dore. Even though today’s New York City feels comparatively safe to the New York of yesteryear, outsiders continue to assume our trash-bag-lined streets are still rife with hooliganism and homicide. “Are you doing okay in the big city?” my grandmother will ask me over the phone. I assure her that yes, I am okay and no, she does not need to overnight ship a Costco pack of pepper spray to me. Jokes aside, it is natural to get upset by headlines about the uptick in violent subway attacks and shootings, all of which are frightening to city dwellers and outsiders alike. But New York is not alone in its post-pandemic crime wave, which is why Justin Fox looked at the data to find out whether the city is safer relative to other places. Turns out [New York is pretty much *the* safest place in America]( to live, according to a number of measures, including homicide: “The more urban your surroundings, the less danger you face,” Justin writes. Why is the conventional wisdom about the big, bad city so incredibly off-base? For one thing, New Yorkers have an unnaturally high tolerance for [witnessing]( [bizarre]( and sometimes [scary]( [stuff]( on a [regular]( [basis](: Source: whatisnewyork Source: whatisnewyork “In dense urban environments you simply see a lot more of what’s going on, for good and ill,” Justin explains. The ill being not just the obese rat that ate your left AirPod, but also that confused man you passed yesterday who was tending to a very questionable open leg wound on the sidewalk. It’s all part of the charm! Bonus Misunderstood Locale Reading: You wouldn’t think of [Brazil as a poster child for inflation management](, but it’s doing a pretty impressive job rolling back price-hiking tariffs. — David Fickling American Kings and Queens Here’s a fun one: What does the intellectual right have in common with romance novel aficionados? They both desire an American monarchy. To avoid melting my brain early on in the pandemic, I took to reading YA novels as a form of escape. One of the books I picked up was “American Royals,” a popular series with nearly [90,000 ratings on Goodreads](. Author Katharine McGee meticulously maps out an alternate reality in which General George Washington opted for a crown instead of a constitution. Coincidentally, some right-wing thinkers also spent their Covid hibernation daydreaming about a world in which [an absolute monarchy replaced our chaotic, gridlocked government]( to achieve some semblance of order. At first, the concept of an American Queen sounds kind of tempting! Instead of rolling our eyes for the 459th time at [the MyPillow CEO](, we’d get to witness proper royal feuds. We wouldn’t need to worry whether [Milo Yiannopoulos is conspiring with Marjorie Taylor Greene]( as her summer intern. Instead we could have cheeky pints and watch Big Air TV! But after those initial fantasies fade away, many legitimate concerns and questions arise: “Would a king have as much power as, say, Tim Cook does?” Tyler Cowen asks. The right’s desire to form a monarchy, while ultimately imprudent, is a useful lens with which to highlight the structural weaknesses of our current form of government. [Read the whole thing](. Bonus Royal Adjacent Reading:  Boris Johnson’s days are numbered, and [Labour’s Keir Starmer]( has been scrupulously plotting his ascent for years. — Adrian Wooldridge Telltale Charts Surging energy prices make American voters more susceptible to the [GOP argument that Democrats are the reason]( you’re paying $80 for a tank of gas at a Cumberland Farms, writes Liam Denning.  [Klarna is about to look real cute]( now that Apple and JPMorgan want a piece of the buy now, pay later pie, writes Paul Davies. Further Reading The US is [running out of anti-tank missiles](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board The [payment-for-order-flow]( model is getting a makeover. — Matt Levine [A cement war]( is brewing between two billionaires in India. — Andy Mukherjee [Israel was right]( to make a complete 180 on its natural gas policy. — Zev Chafets More than a third of people earning more than $250,000 live paycheck to paycheck. [Student loans]( will make things worse. — Alexis Leondis Is Joe Biden actually good at presidenting? [Five overlooked policy metrics]( give us a clue. — Jonathan Bernstein ICYMI [Matthew McConaughey]( pleads for gun reform. [Kara Swisher]( got a new job at Vox. An ex-Republican billionaire might be [LA’s next mayor](. [iPhone users in the EU]( will get common chargers. Kickers Should [shorts in the office]( be a crime? [Caviar bumps]( are the new thing. (h/t Mike Nizza) Wildfires are coming for [the birthplace of the atomic bomb](. Notes:  Please send caviar and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@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. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022