What if you got into Harvard and nobody cared?

Plus: Oppenheimer in Japan, peak oil and more. [Bloomberg]( “This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an uber-selective school of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Elite [admissions]( are far from fair. - Oppenheimer [reignites]( a nuclear nightmare. - [Peak oil](? Not on a prayer. - Biden’s [border policy]( will wear and tear. A Rich Distraction “Does it really matter who gets into Harvard?” Someone has finally dared to whisper this question. And that someone is Allison Schrager. In her [latest column](, she writes that far too many Americans have an “unhealthy obsession" with the 1%. That is, “how much money they make, how much wealth they have, how they got there, how to join their ranks, and so on.” This, of course, is nothing new: Since [ancient]( [history](, we mere mortals have gobbled up every last crumb of salacious information we can get about the [champagne wishes]( and [caviar dreams]( of the rich and famous. We learn about their [beach clubs](. Their [plastic surgeons](. Their [wine caves](. Their [gargantuan yachts](. Their [divorce lawyers](. But snooping on the internet to suss out how much money these one-percenters have in [South Dakota]( — or whom they dated in [college]( — is a rather [repugnant]( [pastime](. The latest manifestation of this obsession comes not from the New York Post or Page Six, but from … drumroll, please ... the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER’s [new paper]( estimates that while a child from a lower-income household has a slightly better chance of snagging a seat at an uber-selective school compared to an upper-middle-class student, a child in the 1% is more than twice (!!) as likely to be admitted, assuming all these kiddos have similar-ish SAT scores: “Meritocracy is a sham,” Robert Reich [tweeted](. The admissions policies of these elite schools amount to what the New York Times [calls]( “affirmative action for the children of the 1%, whose parents earn more than $611,000 a year.” While this is truly mind-boggling, Allison argues that it puts an exaggerated emphasis on the competition between the upper middle class and the rich, which miiiight be distracting us from more pressing challenges, “such as how to increase productivity or improve the economic prospects of the bottom 50%.” In addition to squabbles over higher education, she points to discourse on urban housing and student-loan debt as prime examples of where policymakers have become distracted. Their skewed focus inevitably trickles down into policies that fail to aid the most vulnerable. It’s all too tempting to want to stick it to the man and say that America is completely rigged and corrupt. And sure, it is sometimes. But the real-world numbers tell a more promising story, Allison writes: “The average salary of an Ivy League graduate and someone from a good state school is [not very different](. Most of the CEOs from top Fortune 500 companies went to [high-quality state schools]( such as Texas A&M.” And although there are no official statistics about the alma maters of the authors of newsletters, I can provide anecdotal evidence as a proud alumna of a Big Ten school. Hoosiers > Harvardians!!! Sue me, I said it. Put it on a[t-shirt]( for all I care. Oppenheimer in Japan? Why does the US get to [rehash]( the [moral dilemmas]( of WWII while the country devastated by not one, but two atomic bombs, stays in the dark? It’s a reasonable question. Contrary to what you might have heard, Cillian Murphy’s [cheekbones]( have *not* been [banned]( in Japan. But Oppenheimer doesn’t have a release date yet — assuming one comes at all. It’s as if the Western world gets a hall pass to [talk about Japan]( behind its back. Although it’s been almost 78 years since Little Boy and Fat Man were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Gearoid Reidy notes that the country’s views on the war remain complicated, to say the least. “If and when local audiences can have their say on the movie,” Gearoid hopes, “it may trigger a discussion instead on Japan’s ambiguous, if not contradictory, stance toward nuclear weapons.” As it stands, Japan’s head honcho says nukes are an absolute no-no. The family of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hails from Hiroshima, and he has long promoted denuclearization. But if a war between US and China were to erupt — an increasingly [possible scenario]( — Japan should probably firm up its [game plan](, especially “if the US nuclear umbrella (perhaps in the hands of a less reliable White House) was no longer extended over the country,” Gearoid argues. Read the [whole thing](. Telltale Charts Debating “peak oil” has long been lose-lose game, reserved for only the most daring of individuals (some of whom just happen to be my colleagues!). For a second there, it looked like David Fickling [was right]( about 2019 marking the peak in crude consumption. We were beginning to break free from the shackles of shale, once and for all! But then the summer happened, and the combustion engines driving American families cross-country were [guzzling gasoline]( faster than you can shotgun a [pickle hard seltzer](. “Now, it increasingly looks like gasoline demand will — at the very least — [match the pre-pandemic high](,” Javier Blas writes. The reality is that we live in a world that burns through “enough crude to fill about 6,500 Olympic-size swimming pools every day.” Trimming that demand is going to be tough, especially when the planet is getting hotter by the day. At first glance, you might look at [this chart]( and think that Joe Biden’s strategy of migrant deterrence is working. But Eduardo Porter’s look back on 30 years’ worth of similar strategies — dating all the way back to Bill Clinton’s presidency — suggests that deterrence could ultimately end up threatening America’s national security. Each renewed attempt to harden the border turns into a windfall for human smugglers and drug cartels. In other words, carrots and sticks “ultimately means more money for the bad guys,” he explains. Consider [Title 42](, which allowed US authorities to expel prospective migrants summarily to Mexico: Eduardo says the policy “provided criminal organizations in border cities with a well-stocked pool of victims to extort or hold for ransom.” The price tag of a guided journey is around $10,000, and that’s not even considering the “floor rights” that migrants must pay to drug gangs in order to set foot on their turf. A chart showing a steep drop in border encounters might be a nice thing to slap on a presidential pamphlet, but “the illegal economy nurtured by American migration deterrence will live on,” he writes. Further Reading How to bust up Putin’s [grain blockade](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Offshore wind gets hit by [a perfect storm](. — David Fickling India can’t lead the global south without [feeding it](. — Mihir Sharma A new CEO hops on Gap’s [struggle bus](. — Leticia Miranda The secret lives (and [mistakes]() of Chatbot developers. — Dave Lee Party of one? Why [solo diners]( deserve more. — Howard Chua-Eoan RFK Jr.’s main currency is [outrage](, and he’s flush with it. — F.D. Flam ICYMI The first [smart gun](. Kering’s new [Valentino]( pumps. Trump indictment [watch](. Crocs stock [drop](. Kickers A [vacation]( in Dante’s Inferno. A [bag of Skittles]( without the rainbow. A [trail]( that keeps getting longer. A [sloth king]( got in trouble for lizards. A [thing]( on Timothée Chalamet’s head. A [microscopic animal](, suspended in time. Notes: Please send Skittles and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](