More countries should take moonshots

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a high-powered summit of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. More countries should aim for the moon [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a high-powered summit of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - More countries [should aim for the moon](. - Dollarization isn’t a [ magic fix for Argentina’s economy](. - Pensions from the past are [not the auto industry’s future](. The More Moonshots, The Better As India completes its victory lap from having landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, Japan is readying a mission of its own, becoming the fourth nation to aim for earth’s solitary satellite this year. In the wings, South Korea and Israel are limbering up with lunar plans. This, says Tim Culpan, is[good news for us all](. “A new series of moonshots means a whole new set of technologies to be developed, and by nations new to the venture,” he says. “The revenue from launching satellites and throwing more stuff at the moon can be ploughed back into everything from control systems to electronic components, which benefits its other business including aviation and advanced materials.” Not everyone sees that as a positive development. In some quarters, all these moonshots are stoking fears of a new arms race — akin to the one that accompanied the first forays into space, by the US and the Soviet Union. There’s no gainsaying that the rockets that took cosmonauts into orbit and landed astronauts on the moon were derived from missile technology and in turn helped to refine American and Soviet weapons systems. But, Culpan points out, much more of the knowledge gleaned from the American space program and lunar landings found peaceful, civilian applications. “Dozens of technologies, from solar cells and water filtration to rocket and jet propulsion were developed or fine tuned with NASA money. This gave US industry a huge lead that it would enjoy for decades to come.” The fruits were not limited to Americans. The cameras in smartphones are just one product of NASA research that is enjoyed by people around the world. The new space race will undoubtedly yield knowledge and technology of universal benefit. The moon may become slightly more crowded in the years ahead, but the earth will be better for it. The Dollar Isn’t Argentina’s Savior Javier Milei, the maverick right-wing candidate who won last month’s presidential primary, has proposed to do away with the Argentine peso, replacing it with the US dollar. Tyler Cowen has previously argued that [this a good, commonsense idea](. But here’s Eduardo Porter, [making the opposite case](: We’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end well for Argentina. In April 1991, President Carlos Menem’s “convertibility plan” fixed the exchange rate at one peso per dollar, ensuring that the monetary base would be always fully backed by international reserves, enforcing fiscal discipline by preventing the central bank from printing money to cover the budget deficit. Convertibility supported macroeconomic stability for a full decade. But, as Porter points out, “the Argentine economy — its households and businesses, governments and banks — could not generate enough dollars to cover the debts incurred to maintain consumption in the convertible era.” When the fixed framework collapsed in early 2002, it brought about an economic catastrophe. Milei’s plan is just as shortsighted as Menem’s was, says Eduardo. Argentina’s economic won’t be swept clean by some magic broom. What it needs is “run-of-the-mill, sensible political institutions that can reach the medium- and long-term agreements any government needs to run an economy.” Telltale Charts Among the United Auto Workers union’s demands in new negotiations with the Big Three automakers is the return of defined-benefit pension. Such pensions seem attractive on the surface: In effect, your employer keeps paying your salary after you retire, and takes on all the investment and longevity risks. But going back to the past, says Allison Schrager, would be [a mistake for the manufacturers and workers alike](. Such plans were among the reasons for the decline of the American auto industry in the 1990s, and freezing pensions for new hires in the 2000s helped them to remain competitive with foreign manufacturers. But defined-benefit plans “were never that great for workers, either,” says Schrager. Even though the risks were notionally on the employer’s balance sheet, employees and retirees were not necessarily protected from them. And managing the risks is extremely expensive. That’s why, even at their peak, relatively few workers had defined-benefit pensions. About a third of workers actively participated in a pension plan in the 1970s. Cheaper defined-contribution plans have helped to greatly increase participation since then. Further Reading The Fed is right to [be wary about cheery inflation data](. — Jonathan Levin The Chinese yuan is weakening, and the [rest of the world is comfortable with that](. — John Authers Colleges are going to have to [put generative AI on the curriculum](. — Michael Peppard Increasingly [complicated employment contracts]( are bad for companies and workers. — Adrian Wooldridge Barclays shouldn’t be thinking about [cashing out of the payments business](. — Paul J. Davies India can’t weed out dodgy investment advice by unregulated social-media hucksters. — Andy Mukherjee The Burning Man Festival needs to [clean up its environmental act](. (Free Read!) — Lara Williams ICYMI The G-20 want to have their renewables cake and [support the consumption of hydrocarbons too](. [Microsoft and Apple face fresh investigations]( from European Union regulators. Moderna claims its new Covid vaccine [works on the new strain of the virus](.  US mortgage applications for home purchases [fell to a 28-year low](. The OECD wants the ECB to [maintain a restrictive monetary policy]( against inflation. Audits show [Chinese provinces are using infrastructure funds ineffectively](. New NYC rules just [made renting an Airbnb a lot harder](. Kickers Never mind the Manchus, the Great Wall [couldn’t stop a couple of construction workers](. Climate change is responsible for the [Great Extra Virgin Olive Oil Heist](. The Stones [keep rolling on](. Georges Méliès got there first. Notes: Please send your declarations and communiques and to Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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](