Everybody is flying first class except you

Or so it seems that way. Bloomberg This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an open-air dance party of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [First class flights]( are selling out. - [Trump’s lawyers]( should be afraid. - [Latin America]( has a resource curse. - [Inflation]( is annoyingly predictable. First Class, [Up in the Sky]( “There is a colonial woman on the wing!” Source: Universal Pictures “A common refrain in aviation is once you’ve sampled [the delights of the premium cabin](, it’s hard to contemplate returning to the indignities of cattle class.” This sentence from Chris Bryant’s column about [the renaissance of the first-class cabin]( really got me thinking: What is the equivalent of this for everyday life? I live in New York City, so I guess the closest example would be, like, moving into [a fancy apartment]( that has a dishwasher? Or a washing machine that [doesn’t do this](? City-dwellers who can get their hands on those kinds of luxurious amenities are living like royalty while the rest of us plebeians are relegated to a life with eternally pruny hands and [questionably clean clothes](. Once you have an appliance like a washing machine, there’s absolutely zero way you can go back to spending your Sundays lugging a suitcase down [five flights of stairs]( and then all the way to [the laundromat](. When you don’t have to break your back holding a sack of dirty sheets, that’s when you know you’ve made it. You’re in first class. Well, not actual first class. That’s reserved for people who “think nothing of dropping $10,000 on a one-way fare that comes with extras such as limousine service and a personal assistant at the airport,” Chris writes. Apparently, enough of those people exist for there to be a shortage of first-class seats — a trend the aviation industry could not possibly fathom before the pandemic: But this is not your run-of-the-mill revenge-spending spree: Airlines think this phenomenon represents “a structural shift in how the rich spend their cash,” Chris notes. Of course, that might just be hopeful thinking coming from the mouths of executives who are very invested in that prediction being right. But the urge to splurge seems to be spreading even beyond in-flight offerings. Take cruises, for instance: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings says reservations for its 154-night luxury voyage are up by about 70% compared to pre-pandemic levels. That’s despite one suite costing a mind-boggling $230,000, which is more than most people will shell out for [four years of college tuition](. Jonathan Levin has witnessed the cruise craze up close, having taken [the first cruise from a US port]( since all the Covid closures forced cruise lines to shut down operations. “Based on my grueling research from buffet lines and open-air dance parties, I can attest to the devotion of die-hard cruisers, some of whom have a pathological need to go on multiple trips a year. They will dig deep into their savings to ensure that they catch up,” Jonathan writes. Whether that pathological need can act as a rising tide that lifts all boats is up for debate. Read [the whole thing](. ‘She’s Not My Type’ There’s a newish show on Freevee called [Jury Duty](. The premise is simple: A normal dude named [Ronald Gladden]( gets called into court and ends up being sequestered with a group of jurors. The catch? Everyone is a paid actor, except Ronald. The judge isn’t real. The trial is fake. Every potential scenario is planned. It’s like [The Truman Show]( meets [The Rehearsal](, but infinitely more wholesome because Ronald is a virtual saint and the producers never make him the butt of the joke. There’s [one scene]( that I think about often. A millennial social media “brand ambassador” gets called to the stand because she worked for the plaintiff. Her name? Genevieve Telford-Warren: She’s a lash tech. She’s a DJ. She’s a model. She’s everything, and then some. But bringing her to the stand was a mistake: She did not help the plaintiff’s case. The jurors [despised her](. And although Ms. Telford-Warren is a completely fictional character with no skin in the game, her word soup is extremely believable. Many people on this earth are not born for the stand! Some clients are so outrageously erratic that their lawyer would rather swallow a six-pack of batteries than see them testify under oath. Which is probably why former President Donald J. Trump [declined offers to defend himself]( in the sexual assault case that E. Jean Carroll brought against him — [and won](. Yesterday afternoon, a jury of six men and three women unanimously found the former president liable for sexually assaulting and defaming the writer, who received $5 million in damages. Trump [responded]( to the verdict on his platform, Truth Social, writing “THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” Caroll’s lawyer “[made mincemeat of Trump during his deposition](,” Timothy L. O’Brien writes, noting the multiple points where she caught the former president between lies: “He routinely said that he couldn’t have assaulted Carroll because ‘[she’s not my type](.’ ” But when the lawyer presented a picture of her from the 1980s, Trump “mistakenly thought, twice, that she was his former wife Marla Maples — who was, presumably, his type.” Trump went so far to snap at the lawyer, inappropriately telling her that she wasn’t his type, either. Can you imagine? You held the highest office in the land, and you have the audacity to tell the opposing counsel, oh, also, you’re not my type. Naturally, it took the jury less than three hours to decide that he was liable. But are we surprised? Ever since the Access Hollywood tape, every American understood Trump’s true colors. He was far from a saint then, and he’s far from a saint now. Even if his loyalists and apologists try to deny it or write this off as another instance of Trump being Trump, Tim writes, voters will remember his so-called “[witch hunt](” for what it really is: [A victory]( for all victims of sex crimes. Telltale Charts If you were a person who hangs out in Latin American policy circles, you would know that any mention of Australia or Norway would cause people to drool uncontrollably on the spot out of sheer envy. “What makes the Australian and Norwegian experience so painfully appealing is that they got there on the strength of something that Latin America has in abundance yet has never managed to leverage as successfully: raw materials,” Eduardo Porter writes. Chile, Bolivia and Argentina are sitting on a lithium reserve pile that could fuel the future of electric mobility for years to come. But in order to harness their power correctly, they’ll need to achieve [a new political consensus](. After reading the CPI print today, Jonathan Levin determined that “consumer prices are behaving something like [a game of whack-a-mole](,” which is probably Jerome Powell’s least-favorite carnival game. Core services (excluding housing) has been stickier than a caramel apple, and it’s just now showing signs of cooling off. But right as that happened, core goods, which includes automobiles, sped up by 0.6% month-on-month, which is the fastest we’ve seen it grow since May 2022. Up and down we go, like some sort of sadistic merry-go-round: Further Reading Chile’s [right-wing election victory]( spells trouble for Latin America’s left. — Juan Pablo Spinetto The zealots are wrong: [America’s gun lobby]( is showing cracks. — Francis Wilkinson Don’t overhype [Ukraine’s spring offensive]( — excessive hope can be dangerous. — Andreas Kluth It’s never a good sign when [the ocean is warm](. But it’s especially bad now. — Faye Flam Arab states had no choice but to [allow Syria back]( into the fold — Hussein Ibish The Fed should know that its monetary policy can [break banks](. — Bill Dudley ICYMI [George Santos]( pleads not guilty. Donald Trump will be [on CNN]( tonight. Birth control got an [over-the-counter victory](. Google’s getting into [folding phones](. Kickers Americans [have poor taste]( for a reason. Ice Age humans traveled [from China to the Americas](. A baby was born from [three people’s DNA](. [Shrimp cocktail]( is getting superfluous. Yes, underwear is washed in [hotel coffee makers](. Notes: Please send jumbo shrimp and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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