The Twitter whistleblower doesn’t help Elon Musk's case much

Plus: Pay teachers more! [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a dogsled team of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - A [whistleblower]( doesn’t do much for Elon Musk. - There’s a simple solution to the [teacher shortage](. - We escaped a [financial crisis](. - [$10 (natural) gas]( has arrived. Twitter v. Musk Today the Washington Post released what it calls “[an explosive whistleblower complaint](” by ​​former Twitter security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko. The redacted document is 84 pages long, but Matt Levine points out [basically none of it agrees with what Elon Musk is saying]( to try to get out of his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter. The main (extremely simplified) thing is that: - Musk claims Twitter lies when it says less than 5% of its “monetizable daily active users” are bots. - Zatko says no, Twitter actually does a great job excluding bots from its monetizable users, but it does a pretty bad job at getting rid of them completely. “That’s not fraud; it’s just a thing that annoys Zatko (and Musk),” Matt writes. He adds that helping save the world’s richest person $44 billion is a pretty solid career move. Who needs “quiet quitting” when you can just spill your secrets for a big payday? We might see more people pop up to talk about how bad Twitter is. Whether they will help Musk avoid buying Twitter is still an open question. Failing Our Teachers Once in elementary school, my class spent a full day pretending to be mushers in the Iditarod. My teacher went all out planning this event. We dragged sleds through the halls, got “dog treat” cookies at checkpoints, and had our faces painted with little noses and whiskers. Today I imagine there’d be major parental uproar about making second graders crawl on their hands and knees pretending to be dogs. But life was simpler then. We didn’t have [banned books]( in the library or [clear backpacks]( at security checkpoints. And teachers were rarely the targets of harsh cultural vitriol. [In the past two years](, though, American educators have: - Been called [corrupt, lazy and incompetent](. - Been compared to “[the KKK, but with summers off](.” - Been accused of [indoctrinating kids with pronouns]( and [sexualizing “little babies](.” - Faced opponents saying they deserve low wages because they “[work 20% less](.” If you were at your job and one of your clients randomly walked up to you and said you’re corrupt, lazy and incompetent, would you want to keep working? Probably not! Which is why many teachers are quitting. And [good luck finding new teachers to join the fray](, Bloomberg’s editorial board writes, especially when they’re not being paid enough for the privilege. The “[teacher wage penalty](” grew to an all-time high last year: Educators now earn 23.5% less than other college graduates. And teachers are expected to spend an average of [$820.14 out of pocket on school supplies]( during the 2022-2023 school year, by one estimate — a record amount. States are getting creative in trying to expand the labor pool. In Florida, military veterans without degrees can get teaching certificates. In Arizona, people with subject-matter expertise can teach without credentials. But states should also consider revamping how teachers are evaluated and paid, the editors write. And if compensation were linked to performance, it would surely raise standards across the board. [Read the whole thing](. Bonus School Reading: Having a “[parental consent area](” at the school library is [a no good, very bad idea](. — Stephen Carter The Great Escape: Financial Crisis Edition When Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic, the world braced for an economic shock of epic proportions. But despite the tremendous hardship and loss of life we endured, [there was never a Covid-19 financial crisis](, Adam Kulam and Lily Engbith write. We rarely ask this here, but: What went right? Adam and Lily’s Yale research team put together a database of 9,000 government responses in 180 countries. They found the best thing to do when facing an unprecedented situation like Covid is to “go big” — coincidentally, the [motto for J. Lo’s second wedding](. The 2008 financial crisis may have played an instrumental role in helping the system survive Covid. Policy makers and economists took the bajillion papers about what went wrong back then and used those lessons to instruct their reaction to the pandemic. Unfortunately, 2008 nostalgia can only take us so far. “Since the financial crisis the Fed has had the comfort of knowing unequivocally in which direction to move the temperature gauge, either hot or cold. These days, [it has to look down both sides of the street](,” Eduardo Porter writes. Pandemic fallout lingers, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further flummoxed policy makers and economists. The age of Covid-19-induced economic anxiety may be subsiding, but the era of economic whiplash is just beginning. Further Econ Reading: A perfect cocktail of supply-chain chaos, government policy and automation gives US manufacturers the best shot ever at [bringing production back home](. — Thomas Black Telltale Charts “The phrase [‘$10 gas’ is liable to put Americans in the hospital](,” writes Liam Denning. But don’t call the EMTs . This particular energy shock is about natural gas, not gasoline. For more than a decade, nat gas chilled at about $2 per million BTU, but this morning it shot above $10 for the first time since 2008. First Ukraine happened, then our summer has been hotter than a [wool sock filled with baked beans](. After their [hot girl walks](, the TikTok girlies went home and put their AC on full blast, [boosting electricity consumption](, Javier Blas explains in the latest edition of [Elements](. Brexit Ruins Everything, Part 16,302: Horizon — the largest science funding program of its kind — might shut its door in Britain’s face, writes Therese Raphael. Researchers [risk losing access to all kinds of programs]( pertaining to nuclear innovation, space and the meaning of life, probably. Further Reading [The latest monkeypox outbreaks]( should put people with pets and college kids on alert. — Sam Fazeli and Therese Raphael Vladimir Putin has zero qualms about starting [Chernobyl 2.0 in Ukraine](. — Andreas Kluth Singapore’s repeal of a law that prohibited sex between men comes with some [major caveats](. — Daniel Moss Donald Trump says he’s above the law. His bad behavior should make it [more likely for him to be prosecuted](. — Jonathan Bernstein If Credit Suisse is going to change, its [new executive team]( will need to be ruthless. — Paul J. Davies [Darya Dugina’s assassination]( spotlights the only group supporting Putin’s Ukraine invasion: Russian nationalists. — Leonid Bershidsky One simply can’t ignore [all the red flags in Vietnam’s property market](. — Shuli Ren ICYMI [Student debt relief]( is coming. [Harvard might lose its status]( as the wealthiest school. Trump kept more than [700 pages of classified documents](. Kickers  You, too, can [become]( a LinkedIn “[thinkfluencer](.” [It’s corn!]( I can [tell you all about it](. New vertical farm to make [a million pounds of mushroom bacon]( a year. It’s time to normalize [the half cocktail](. Notes:  Please send buttered corn 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 Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022