Working mothers finally get what they deserve: a Nobel!

Plus: Bond market blues, Columbus Day opinions and more. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, the most prestigious award of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Claudia Goldin’s Nobel [is rad](. - American Indians deserve [a pad](. - The bond market looks [real bad](. Goldin Gets the [Gold]( Hello! It’s me [again](. I couldn’t help but crawl back to my keyboard after hearing that Claudia Goldin [won]( the Nobel in economics this morning for her work on the importance of flexibility to mothers’ earning power. It’s exciting stuff, and very fitting that this is your second newsletter of the day from me, but more on that later. Not only is Claudia the first woman to win the prize solo, she had the [prescience]( to write a paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research that published *this morning.* The title, naturally, is: [Why Women Won](. Can you imagine?! You wake up, publish a paper called “Why Women Won” and then go ahead and WIN yourself the most prestigious award of all time, joining the ranks of Milton Friedman and Daniel Kahneman?!? It’s glorious and I love it. Also, please spare a second to admire [her dog](, Pika: Photographer: LAUREN OWENS LAMBERT/AFP I’m not the only one putting in a double shift today. Sarah Green Carmichael published not one but two columns this morning. When she saw the news of Goldin’s achievement, she [said]( her “still-caffeineless brain lurched into action, with a few gray cells beginning to outline a draft while the rest catalogued everything about my morning that could be shifted (meetings, laundry, my own breakfast) and everything that could not (diaper changes, day care drop off, my toddler’s breakfast).” Sarah’s process perfectly illustrates what a lot of moms do on a daily basis: Navigate parenthood and careerhood through a near-constant stream of mini decisions. “Goldin is best known for her work on women’s careers and how they can be derailed by marriage and motherhood. I felt hyperaware, in that moment, of my competing devotions: Working and mothering. How quickly could I write this piece? Only as quickly as my maternal duties would allow. The irony tasted as bitter as the coffee,” she says. Adding to the irony is Sarah’s other column, written well before news of the Nobel was announced. She looked into the viral phenomenon of [“overemployed” people](. Over the past two years, the [Washington Post](, [Wall Street Journal](, [Wired]( and the [BBC]( have “exposed” a subset of remote employees who are secretly working two full-time jobs at once, not by clocking 80-hour weeks, but by skimping their workloads in both positions. But are people really doing this? She says, “bosses frightened of this workforce monster should know that it’s nearly as mythical as the one that supposedly lives in Loch Ness.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, [only]( 4.4% of men and 5.2% of women have more than one job — and most of those people aren’t working from home. Instead, they’re [juggling]( multiple part-time jobs, or a full-time job and a part-time gig, trying to make ends meet. Bonus Working Women Reading: - Women are an [overlooked resource]( in the battle to tame inflation. — Claudia Sahm - Managers, please stop [overlooking]( women’s potential. — Sarah Green Carmichael Home Alone Given all the news of the day, I nearly forgot that it was the holiday sometimes known as [Columbus Day](. But it is! And instead of doing the same old song and dance, arguing about [what to call this day]( and whether we should have it off (since 2021, the White House has [observed]( Indigenous Peoples’ Day), let’s do something useful that actually attempts to right some historical wrongs. What better way to do that than discuss housing, a topic everyone loves to get mad about. “A long history of discriminatory programs — hinging on [citizenship]( and later race — have kept American Indians from enjoying the level of homeownership opportunities that White Americans have long benefited from,” Kasey Keeler [writes](, arguing that “tribal citizens were never envisioned as potential participants of this slice of the American dream.” Perhaps you remembered learning about the 1862 [Homestead Act]( in your high school history class. Essentially, it allowed White people to take allllll the land that American Indians had been dispossessed of and sell it to non-Native settlers at bargain-basement prices. It was [repealed a decade later](, but by that point the damage had already been done. “The metropolitan areas we recognize today as housing market hot spots — New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, the Bay Area and Los Angeles — remain places American Indians are priced out of due to spiraling land values, increasing home costs and a highly competitive marketplace. This is the very land their ancestors were stripped of only a few generations ago,” Kasey explains. She says the government should work to expand targeted [lending programs]( and increase federal funding to off-reservation tribal members — a form of reparations so that American Indians can have a fair shot at becoming homeowners. Read [the whole thing](. Telltale Charts Listen, I knew all that stuff going on in the bond market was bad. But I didn’t know it was the biggest bond market rout in *150* years. That was the 1870s! Back then, what was more scandalous: Walt Whitman getting [fired]( from his federal job or the bond market? My money’s on bonds, but maybe I’m biased: “Last year was in fact US bond investors’ worst year since 1871, with a total return of minus 15.7%, even worse than the annus horribilis of 2009. For 2023, the year-to-date return has been almost minus 10%; annualized, that’s minus 17.3% — even worse than 2022. We are looking at bond investors’ two worst years in a century and a half,” Niall Ferguson [writes](. What’s the Federal Reserve to do about all of this? Well, Jonathan Levin [says]( the surge in yields is probably just a detour. But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. “One way or another, history shows that the 10-year yield needs to climb high enough to kiss the Fed’s peak rate before both can start moving in the other direction,” he argues. Further Reading [Ozempic]( is bad for business. — Matt Levine Science [scandals]( are built on media hype. — F.D. Flam Biden’s democracy crusade goes astray in [Bangladesh](. — Mihir Sharma Singapore’s [power grid]( is a geographic experiment. — David Fickling New Fed [rules for banks]( might be missing the target. — Paul J. Davies Matt Gaetz’s bizarre thoughts on [the dollar]( make no sense. — Andreas Kluth [Unionizing Tesla]( is top-of-mind for the leader of UAW. — Liam Denning ICYMI Vietnam tried [to hack]( US officials. [Zombie viruses]( are rising from the dead. New York’s Airbnb ban takes [an ugly turn](. Kickers NYC dog shelters are [out of room](. Wait, is parmesan [vegetarian](? [Literary hats]( are all the rage. A family of Pop Tart [taste testers](. There’s something off about [Chris Pine](. Notes: Please send Pop Tarts and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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