Plus: White guys can't cook everything, GMO corn isn't climate-proof and more. [Bloomberg](
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a compound butter of Bloomberg Opinionâs opinions. [Sign up here](. Todayâs Agenda - [Sanctions]( are tight.
- [Kitchens]( are White.
- [Corn]( is a fright.
- [Tech bros]( take flight. Squash Sanctions? Iâll never forget the one Thanksgiving where I got sick after I inhaled the entire caramelized onion topping off my uncleâs butternut squash casserole. I was 10 years old, and the sweet, salty, buttery crumbles that blanketed the dish were addictive. The remainder of my day was spent doubled over in the bathroom, regretting my choices. Too much of a good thing can turn bad, fast. Which brings me to this chart: Some policymakers look at the rapid clip in which the US has grown to rely on sanctions and argue that such tools of coercion are Washingtonâs version of a butternut squash casserole. But Hal Brands [feels differently](: âSanctions can succeed by deterring future transgressions as well as by changing behavior to date,â he writes, pointing to the war in Ukraine. Itâs not as though sanctions are going to magically force Putin to hightail it out of Ukraine, but they could âgive pause to governments that are thinking about emulatingâ Putinâs actions, Hal argues. Think about China. If Xi Jinping could have it his way, he might already be mucking about Taiwan, setting fire to the international order as we know it. But heâs not! And on top of that, Xi arguably âhas done more than anybody else so far to restrain Putin, by telling his nominal âfriendâ face-to-face not to use a nuke, lest he lose Beijingâs support,â Andreas Kluth [writes](. Sanctions â and the perceived economic threat they pose â probably have something to do with it. This doesnât mean that moderation gets thrown out the window, though. âEffectiveness requires restraint,â Hal writes: âIf the US uses sanctions gratuitously, in relatively unimportant cases, it will be harder to convince key allies to come along on matters â mostly involving China â that matter more.â Nobody wants to be the girl who gets sick on Thanksgiving. Fine Dining Is a (White) Boysâ Club There once was a chef named Thomas Straker: Butter boy. During Covid, Thomas started to make TikTok videos about [compound]( [butter](. The internet, it seemed, had never encountered such beautiful butter. The videos of him scooping out mesmerizing [quenelles]( were viewed more than 200 million times. This made Thomas very famous. Naturally, he got some banks and investors to fund a [restaurant]( that goes by his last name: Strakerâs. Things were going well for Thomas, that is, until he posted a photo of the team of chefs he assembled: Diversity row. You see the issue here, right? âItâs the Kenâs at their mojo dojo Casa house,â one Instagram user [quipped]( (albeit not very grammatically). If you stare long enough at the image, it morphs into a scene straight out of a Jordan Peele film: We live in a simulation. Illustration: Jessica Karl Thomas proceeded to dig himself further into a hole by addressing his haters in an Instagram comment: âHonestly, people need to calm down,â he wrote, saying âthere is a shortage of chefs/hospitality workers ... if you feel so passionately please go and gather CVâs of any chefs you think weâre missing in the team.â The trouble is, change needs to start long before hiring and staffing, Howard Chua-Eoan writes, pointing out that âtraditional financing is difficult to come by for would-be restaurateurs who are women and minorities.â Thomasâs brigade of White men donning white aprons is a visual reflection of the âdiversity deficitâ that âhaunts the industry,â Howard says. Thankfully, Thomas has since backtracked from his chill-out-dude stance, saying he is âvery sorryâ for his initial response and that he is âabsolutely committed to ensuring diversity.â This realization â [White guys canât cook everything!]( â is much-needed progress. GMOs vs. UFOs Hereâs a fun question. Which would you say is more harrowing: - Alien spacecraft
- Genetically modified corn Thereâs no right or wrong answer. After last Wednesdayâs congressional hearing on UFOs, your mind probably goes to aliens, and I donât blame you. Tyler Cowen says âthe most serious claims from the hearings [survived unscathed](: those about inexplicable phenomena and possible national-security threats,â which is concerning, to say the least. But if you were to read Amanda Little's [latest column](, you might be surprised how scary "smart corn" has become, and not just because it gets stuck in your teeth. At less than 7 feet tall, the new genetically modified corn varietal â which the Department of Agriculture now says [is safe]( for farmers to grow in the US â isnât as imposing as the original version, but it makes up for the lack of height in other, more terrifying ways. Scientists injected the corn plant with a âforeign geneâ that allows it âto produce the same amount of fruit on much shorter, superstrength stalks,â Amanda writes. The birth of mutant corn has some farmers hoping that the innovation will fix their climate woes. But âcrops of the future wonât just need one foreign gene to survive the manifold pressures of climate change, theyâll need dozens. And that is a hard reality to swallow,â she says. This type of human ingenuity is a Band-Aid that will only get us so far. Maybe we really do need [the aliens]( after all. Bonus Climate Reading: - [Natural hydrogen]( is a mystery worth solving. â David Fickling - The [offshore wind industry]( is flailing in a financial hurricane. â Liam Denning - Itâs way [too hot]( for airplanes. â Mark Gongloff Telltale Charts Last month, Canada announced a new program that allows foreigners living in the US on H-1B visas to work for any employer in Canada for three years. It got more than 10,000 applications for the program in less than 48 hours. âThis [talent-poaching scheme]( is a model of creative policymaking, and should be causing alarm in Washington,â Bloombergâs editorial board writes. Big Techâs Covid-induced hiring spree and sequential [firing spree]( has caused at least 50,000 workers to lose their visas since last fall. âFacing this uncertainty, even H-1B workers whoâve kept their jobs are taking up Canadaâs offer to move there instead,â the editors say. Given that the US forces Indian workers with advanced degrees to wait in [queues]( of more than 150 years, itâs no wonder theyâre opting to move next door, where the process takes as little as six months. Nobody needs a green card when theyâre dead. While a large part of Wall Street seems to have [shrugged off]( the whole recession question, [the manufacturing world]( is still stuck in a doom loop, trying to decide whether we have a true economic crisis on our hands. âIs the industrial economy finding a bottom, just starting to slow or simply hitting a speed bump?â Brooke Sutherland asks. US factory activity has contracted for the ninth consecutive month in July, but earnings season has been abnormally chipper. The contrast between ugly benchmark data and upbeat individual company narratives adds yet another[confounding wrinkle]( to the debate over the trajectory of the economy. Further Reading Hedge fund managers [scored big](. Investors? Not so much. â Marc Rubinstein [Aston Martin]( actually has a shot at catching up with Ferrari. â Chris Bryant UK central bankers [donât seem to care]( the slightest bit about taxpayers. â Marcus Ashworth Imagining a soft landing is an exercise in [positivity](. â Bill Dudley Mexico and the US are oil and vinegar when it comes to [organized crime](. â Eduardo Porter Uh, should some [index funds]( be illegal? â Matt Levine ICYMI Trump [expects]( to be indicted. New Jerseyâs lieutenant governor [passed away](. [Lip fillers]( are plumping up private equity. Former dancers [sued]( Lizzo for weight-shaming. RIP, incandescent [lightbulbs](. Kickers Burrata is a [boring fat blob](. Parental anxiety over [camp photos](. NYC delivery is now [fork-free](. Area manâs [beef]( with Taco Bellâs beef. Source: @TrungTPhan via Twitter Notes: Please send boring blobs and beef 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.
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