Our furry friends aren't so valuable these days

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an alphabetical singalong to Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. How much is that doggy in the wind [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an alphabetical singalong to Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - How much is that doggy in the window? [Cheaper than a year ago](. - California is suffering from climate whiplash. [Innovation may provide solutions](. - Transgender teens have a hard time of it. [Gender-affirming hormones help](. - US stocks have outperformed since the first debt ceiling showdown. [But the trend might not last](. The Pandemic Pet Bubble Is Bursting As workers start to return to offices and rising costs crimp consumer spending power, prices for one discretionary item are dropping fast —  welcome to doggy deflation. The average price of dogs in the UK [fell by 28% between January and November 2022](, compared with the year earlier period, Andrea Felsted writes, citing a report from Pets4Homes. The 20 most popular cat breeds cost 32% less. In April and May 2020, there were more than 400 buyers per advertised pet. By November 2022, that had slumped to around 80 competing for each listing. It’s not just that demand for new furry friends is declining. The cost-of-living crisis is making it harder for households to afford to keep Rover and Tiddles fed and cared for. Nearly 1 in ten owners is considering giving up their pet, according to a survey of 2,500 Pets4Homes users. Shelters are filling up with unwanted animals. “Pets are not inanimate stores of value,” Andrea argues. “They provided comfort and companionship during the pandemic. Having to give them up now will be painful.” Bonus Post-Pandemic Reading: New York’s state tax code is [a WFH nightmare](: Alexis Leondis Lurching From Floods to Drought and Back Again The American West has always been subject to temperamental weather cycles, swinging between drenchings and droughts. But the current climate crisis is making California’s dry periods even drier, while the warm air is sucking up more moisture from the ocean and making its wet spells even wetter. To cope, it needs to co-opt “two points of state pride: [innovation and love of nature](,” argues Faye Flam. Pivoting from concrete dams and levees to more nature-friendly engineering projects that restore groundwater is key to adapting to the increasingly changeable weather. Reshaping the landscape to channel water to flood plains where the ground can absorb it, replacing farmland with wooded nature preserves to replenish groundwater stocks and adding ponds and lakes to urban parks to collect rainfall all offer some respite, Faye says. “The unpredictability is all being amplified by global warming, but people can adapt by recognizing where nature can be harnessed to help humanity,” Faye writes. “And that plays to the strengths of a state known for ingenuity and natural beauty.” Bonus Environmental-Tinkering Analysis: [How Will Geoengineering Work?]( Look to Game Theory: Tyler Cowen Taking Better Care of Trans Teens The rights of transgender teens are being [trampled by politicians]( pretending to protect children, argues Lisa Jarvis. Fostering “an increasingly hostile environment” for the trans community is causing real harm; one in five trans or nonbinary teens said they had attempted suicide in the previous year, according to a survey conducted by the Trevor Project last year, while Canadian researchers found that trans adolescents were 7.5 times as likely to have attempted suicide as their cisgender, heterosexual peers. In a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that gender-affirming hormones have a positive effect on trans teens’ mental health. More than 300 transgender and nonbinary youth were enrolled from four leading children’s hospitals and studied for two years after beginning hormone therapy to affirm their gender identity. As their appearance increasingly matched their gender identity, so did their overall well-being — an effect that was sustained over the two years. “There’s no question that researchers need to continue to understand the best way to help transgender youth lead their happiest and healthiest lives,” Lisa writes. “But as evidence grows of the benefits of gender-affirming hormones, political efforts to ban them in order to ‘protect’ kids are becoming increasingly disingenuous.” Telltale Charts Back in 2011, the US had its first bruising encounter with the politics surrounding the nation’s debt ceiling, prompting Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s debt rating to AA+ from AAA. “After a decade of steadily falling compared to the rest of the world, the S&P downgrade triggered a decade of stunningly consistent outperformance for the US,” says John Authers, who also notes that [the trend is in imminent danger of breaking](. Bonus US threat-of-default reading: The debt-ceiling nonsense [has gone on long enough](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Further Reading [Bond investors have a valid point]( in this demerger spat. — Chris Hughes Are strikes bad news for the UK economy? [Go figure](. — Marcus Ashworth [Goldbugs owe a big debt]( to buying by central banks. — Elements by Liam Denning As the casualties of progress pile up, [technology needs a critical evaluation](. — Eduardo Porter Turkey must allow [Sweden and Finland to join NATO](. — James Stavridis ICYMI The global real estate market is sitting on [a $175 billion debt time bomb](. Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will [cut about 12,000 jobs](, more than 6% of its global workforce. Fund managers are bracing for [another round of ESG downgrades]( with $4 trillion at stake. Emmanuel Macron faces [a prolonged battle over French pension reform]( as trade unions dig in. [UK retailers had their worst year ever in 2022](, underlining a grim outlook for the economy. Kickers A giant cane toad weighing 2.7 kilograms has been discovered in an Australian rainforest by park rangers [who’ve named it Toadzilla](. Crypto lender Nexo proudly declares a $45 million fine by the Securities & Exchange Commission as evidence that it is a [“pioneer, like Uber and Airbnb, providing disruptive solutions in a fast-paced environment.”]((h/t Lionel Laurent) [Saturn and Venus will “kiss” this Sunday](. (h/t Elaine He) [Dolphins were spotted in the Bronx River](this week, according to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Notes:  Please send dolphin sightings and complaints to Mark Gilbert at magilbert@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? 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