Mark Zuckerberg hard-launched Threads, and it worked

Plus: Conservative chaos, Yellen's China trip and more. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, [a new era]( of diverse and interconnected networks of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Musk is [under pressure.]( - Conservatives [need a rescue](. - [Chinese goods]( are weak. - This [stock rally]( is different. Sooo … chaos menu ??? How chaotic is too chaotic? Source: FX The [second season]( of FX’s [The Bear]( is many things, but perhaps the best word to describe it is chaos. And that’s probably [the point]( — every episode hinges on the execution of a “thoughtful” fine dining experience conceived around a “[chaos menu](.” The chefs combine ingredients that typically wouldn’t appear together — [a cannoli]( stuffed with mortadella mousse, for instance — into a dish that tastes delicious all the same. When I logged onto Threads, Meta’s new “Twitter Killer” app, for the first time last night, that’s [exactly what it felt like](: pure, unadulterated chaos. And despite the [lack of a chronological feed]( or any sense of order at all, I — and [many others]( —couldn’t help but love it. “[The dopamine was flowing](,” Dave Lee writes of the launch, noting how “the ding-ding-ding of notifications began almost immediately.” Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to dethrone his virtual Fight Club nemesis, Elon Musk, was wildly successful based on [the numbers]( alone: By 11 a.m. New York time, the app had gained [30 million users](, an average of about 30,000 people joining each minute. In comparison, Twitter — which has a 17-year head start on Threads — had 238 million “monetizable” daily users before Musk took over. Zuckerberg, delighted with the positive reception, did a victory lap on Musk’s app, [posting his first tweet]( in more than a decade: It’s brutal out here. “It may well have been the first day of sincerely positive PR Zuckerberg has enjoyed since 2018’s Cambridge Analytica scandal left his company’s reputation in tatters,” Dave notes. The platform feels like the most random block party in the world, simultaneously attended by both your middle-school crush and [the Backstreet Boys](. There are cons to it, of course — but as with any new app, [growing pains]( are to be expected: Perhaps the biggest con of them all is that the app [isn’t available in Europe]( — and nobody knows when (or if) it will be, since it coincides “with the imminent launch of [a new European Union law]( that strikes at the heart of the way Meta makes money,” Parmy Olson explains. Eventually, Zuckerberg may be forced to give Europeans a choice on how their data is used and stored — a decision that Parmy says could make a dent in Meta’s earnings. If you’re not on Instagram and want to try it out, you’re out of luck — for now, at least. The only way to get onto Threads — or [get off it]( — is to have an existing Insta account. Meta [promises]( to eventually make the app compatible with the “[fediverse](,” which would allow users “to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.” But until then, Zuckerberg seems [quite content]( cooking up chaos. The Poisoned Political Apple BFFs. Photographer: Frank Johnston/Washington Post/Getty Images Back in the eighties, the popular flavor of conservatism had nothing to do with red MAGA caps or building the wall or cheering on Brandon — who [wasn’t even born]( yet. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan would not have stood for such theatrics. Instead, the twin flames ushered in an era of transatlantic conservatism that “unleashed business at home and stood up to tyranny abroad,” Adrian Wooldridge writes. The legacy of that movement persisted for decades under their successors: John Major, George H.W. Bush, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. But no more, he argues: “On both sides of the Atlantic, conservatism is in the grip of a general crisis” that “has left both the Tories in the UK and the Republicans in the US dangerously unmoored.” Boris Johnson and Donald Trump certainly put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth, but Adrian says the rot set in well before the two took office. In the US, George W. Bush pursued a war on terrorism that failed because “transplanting democracy in hostile soil is a labor of Sisyphus, and a bloody one at that.” In the UK, David Cameron took a different bite out of the Thatcher-Reagan apple, arguing for a severe program of austerity that ended up hollowing the government from the inside-out. “The result in both the US and UK was a deepening alienation from politics as people concluded that the ruling parties were either paying no attention to their problems or actively making them worse,” Adrian explains. Photographer: Stefan Rousseau/PA Images/Getty Images Johnson and Trump further whittled away at the apple, leaving nothing but a skeletal core of conservatism in their wake. “Populism proved to be more a protest movement than a philosophy of governing. The results were economic paralysis and political hypocrisy,” Adrian writes. Today’s GOP is all but untethered from the past. The party now belongs to “middle and working class radicals who believe in a combustible combination of gun rights, low taxes and, increasingly, higher spending,” he says. Is there any way for conservatives to get their taste buds back on track? Adrian says yes, but it won’t be easy to weed out the bad apples. Read [the whole thing](. Telltale Charts Janet Yellen is in the middle of a li’l business trip to Beijing, where she was tasked with trying to smooth things over with China. Minxin Pei says the US Treasury Secretary [should get a warm welcome](, given how strong of a hand she has compared to President Xi Jinping, who presides over a faltering economy with a slumping property market. For three-plus years, China has been pummeled by the pandemic, which sent everything from consumer spending to private investments off a cliff. What’s worse, “weak overseas demand and the re-routing of supply chains are [hitting exports](,” Bloomberg’s editorial board writes. [A successful visit]( from Yellen could relieve some — but not all — of these fears: Much like what happens on Shark Tank, “investors love to bet on new companies with a lot of hype but no profits,” Nir Kaissar writes. Occasionally it pays off, as was the case with Amazon and Tesla, both of which were money pits at the start. But success stories like those are more an anomaly than anything, so there’s real danger in [people getting burned by a bad trade](. Just look at The Goldman Sachs Non-Profitable Tech Basket, which boasts well-known companies like Roku, Peloton and Lyft. It surged 285% from April 2020 to January 2021, and then tumbled 74% from its peak through the end of last year. Now, the index is bouncing back, but who knows for how long. Some companies are content with setting their piles of cash — and yours — on fire: Further Reading The [Great Resignation hangover]( is still causing headaches for the Fed. — Jonathan Levin [Aspartame's cancer risks]( aside, diet soda is just not good for you. — F.D. Flam [This megamerger]( could leave India’s banks gasping for air. — Andy Mukherjee A will isn’t the only way to help loved ones from the grave: [Death letters]( work, too. — Stuart Trow Iran has made inroads into the West Bank, thanks to [Israel’s Netanyahu](. — Bobby Ghosh Wait, why is Biden [risking an early loss]( to RFK Jr.? — Jonathan Bernstein [Bloody street protests]( are an overrated buying signal. — John Authers ICYMI The [hottest day](. The [biggest video screen](. The [first Alzheimer's drug](. Kickers The [pancake spy](. The [ivory woman](. The [Tahoe bears](. The [wine thief](. Notes: Please send pancakes and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. 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