Israel can't fight this war alone. [Bloomberg](
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a serial situationship with Bloomberg Opinionâs opinions. [Sign up here](. Todayâs Agenda - Israel canât fight [this war]( alone.
- FTXâs [spreadsheets]( were error-prone.
- [Pig kidneys]( are a medical unknown.
- Inflation has reached [the end zone](. These Are Dark Times Listen, itâs been an absolutely dreadful week. So no elaborate intro today to find a clever way to explain whatâs happening in the world. Itâs bad, and you know itâs bad. And itâs likely to get worse from here. That said, on we go. âDark days lie ahead. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are preparing to cross into Gaza, facing a bloody, street-to-street fight. Their stated goal is to destroy Hamas as a fighting force. Any nations that have the best interests of either Israelis or Palestinians at heart ought to help Israel to complete that task swiftly â and to find a longer-lasting solution once the fighting has ceased,â [writes]( Mike Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP. That effort begins with the US. âAlmost without exception, lawmakers from both parties in Congress are eager to give Israel whatever it asks, from missiles to dollars,â Andreas Kluth [says](. âAnd that is as it should be, for Israel just became the victim of unspeakable barbarity and now needs stalwart support.â Yet nobody knows how long this bipartisan support will last. Already, Andreas canât help but notice the parallels to whatâs happened in Ukraine â including the hypocrisy of lawmakers who refuse to provide aid. âPutinâs soldiers and Hamas both torture, rape, kill, maim and abduct. Both in their own ways have genocidal goals and want to eliminate a nation â Putin the Ukrainians, Hamas the Israelis,â he writes. Those Hamas terrorists âwho murdered babies in their cribs last week werenât stamped with pathological hatred at birth,â Francis Wilkinson [writes](. The brutality is âan acquired habit, the result of a process of moral dulling and rage sharpening. No doubt some foes of Hamas will now rejoice at the sight of Palestinian babies blown to smithereens in retaliation.â Which raises a question that Bobby Ghosh tries to answer: âIt is not unreasonable to wonder why the 2.3 million civilians living in the tiny enclave donât flee to safer ground,â he writes. But the fact of the matter is that they canât. Gaza is the âworldâs[ largest open-air prison](,â a 139-square-mile strip of land thatâs [approximately the size of Philadelphia](, with a third more people. Israel wants [to leave it with]( âno electricity, no food, no water, no gas.â The idea of [escaping to safety]( with an infant in those conditions is a nonstarter, and that doesnât even take into account the prospect of violence. Bobby points out that ânot only do the Palestinians fleeing south run the [gauntlet of Israeli bombs](, but they also risk the wrath of Hamas,â which has shut the [border]( before. After Israel and its allies take down Hamas, Marc Champion  [says](, âthere are two paths that attempt to solve complex territorial problems such as the Israel-Palestine question typically take.â Path No. 1, âthe route of absolutes, leads inexorably toward greater violence,â he writes. But Path No. 2 is indefinitely harder, involving the coexistence of two enemies in one land â a land that is enmeshed in a long history of bloodshed. Bonus Reading: - China needs to get [involved]( in the Middle East. â Minxin Pei
- Given the Iran risk, markets should prepare for [a wider crisis](. â John Authers Caroline in the City Caroline Ellison arrives to court in New York, US, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg I donât know who needs to hear this, but if the dude in your [serial situationship]( (whoâs also your boss) owns a crypto exchange and asks you to be the CEO of his hedge fund side-gig â but gives you zero equity and expects you to do a bunch of [illegal-sounding stuff]( and support his unhinged [presidential aspirations]( â mayyybe you should just ghost him? Like, donât even bother trying to [quit]( your job as CEO â heâd get the message, eventually. What you shouldnât do (under any circumstances) is go all Bridget Jones on him and [fill]( your [Google Docs]( [diary]( with salacious details about your lovers quarrels. That would be bad! Even worse would be if you, I dunno, had the audacity to [prepare]( not one, not two, but SEVEN alternate balance sheets to conceal the fact that youâre borrowing billons of dollars from customers and your boss/beloved is like, âLove to see the hustle, letâs go with Alternative 7!â Then â in [the words]( of Matt Levine â âone of you is going to prison absolutely forever.â âCaroline Ellison smartly decided it wasnât going to be her,â he says. In case you forgot, weâre in the midst of one of the biggest fraud trials of all time. And Sam Bankman-Friedâs ex-girlfriend has been in the hot seat all week, divulging the details of her relationship with the FTX founder. Ellison headed up Alameda Research and has agreed to work with prosecutors by pleading guilty to criminal charges. Already, her testimony has been âpretty nuts,â Matt writes. She [said]( SBF directed her âto commit these crimesâ and had her trapped in a âconstant state of dread.â She brought [spreadsheets](, [tears]( and [text messages]( to the stand, as well as [this already-legendary list]( of âthings that Sam is freaking out about.â Inspired by this list, I created one of my own: Here are the things Iâd imagine that Sam is freaking out about today, Day 7 of his fraud trial. - seeing the [ex]( take the stand
- her [list]( of things that Sam is freaking out about
- [bad PR]( for the rest of eternity
- [MBS]( fallout/Saudi stuff
- Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla [mirage](
- people [knowing]( about â[the thing](â
- [haircut]( (RIP valuable locks)
- people knowing about Thai [prostitutes](
- unfair courtroom [sketches](
- lawyers being [annoying](
- suboptimal coverage in [every]( languageÂ
- random number [generators]( looking [suss]( âWhen I started working at Alameda, I donât think I would have believed if you told me I would be sending false balance sheets to our lenders or taking customer money, but over time it was something I felt more comfortable with,â she testified yesterday, arguing that Sam knowingly removed $14 billion of FTX customer funds. Today she faced a cross-examination in which SBFâs lawyers [struggled]( to tarnish her [credibility](. Now, you might be [wondering](: âWhy is this trial happening in the first place? Shouldnât Sam have just taken a plea deal?â As Matt [has written](: âBankman-Fried didnât take a plea deal because prosecutors [never offered him one](, and never would. Why would they? They offered plea deals to everyone else in Bankman-Friedâs inner circle, to get those people to cooperate and testify against Bankman-Fried, so they can maximize their ([very good](!) chances of convicting Bankman-Fried.â Now, his best defense is âit was all a series of good-faith accidents; we were just kids who didnât know what we were doing.â Which, sure, FTX was god awful at accounting (see: Carolineâs seven balance sheets) but ânot in a charming innocent way,â Matt argues. How is Bitcoin behaving through all of this? As of last night, âthe coin had fallen for the fifth straight session to trade below $27,000 for the [first time]( since September,â Isabelle Lee [writes](, but some of that drop might have to do with the conflict in the Middle East. âThe saga of [SBFâs] hubristic rise and fall will doubtless soon be a movie; itâs already [a contentious book]( by Michael Lewis, while [Bloombergâs own Zeke Faux]( has [also chronicled the tale]( in [Number Go Up](,â Isabelle writes. Now we just get to wonder whether [Margot Robbie]( and [Jonah Hill]( will play Caroline and Sam. Pigs + Kidneys = Pigneys? The opening scene of the Beckham [docuseries]( on Netflix starts with a pastoral image of the famous football player filling up [a jar of honey]( while wearing a full beekeeper [getup]( with his [initials]( embroidered on it. He tells the camera he wants to call his honey âGolden Bees,â but his wife Victoria â AKA Posh Spice â is dead-set on âDBeeâz Sticky Stuff.â Obviously, sticky stuff is superior in every way. Also in need of a catchy nickname is [pig kidneys](, the latest crowning achievement of Crispr technology. âDoctors have spent decades dreaming of engineering pigs to produce kidneys, hearts, livers and pancreases that could function in humans,â Lisa Jarvis writes, but a biotech firm called eGenesis is improving the viability of the organs. âResearchers have already done some human tests; [several]( [teams]( have [transplanted]( engineered pig kidneys into brain-dead patients, where theyâve been able to demonstrate the organs have some function,â she writes, but so far those experiments have been one-offs. To get the technology to clinical trials, Lisa says the company needs to show its pig kidneys are safe and effective in a monkey for at least a year â a reasonable expectation, she argues: âAnyone volunteering for a trial would want to know the experimental organ would give them a real chance to gain meaningful time.â If that day arrives, I imagine a few people might need some convincing before bringing home the bacon, so to speak. So should we call them pigneys? (Pigs + kidneys) Or porgans? (pigs + organs) Iâll leave it to you to decide. Telltale Charts Taylor Swift and Beyoncé weren't the only ones who [decided]( to have a [joint slay]( this week: Lionel Laurent [says]( "Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholzâs boat trip along the River Elbe this week was a symbolic one for the European Unionâs fractious Franco-German power couple â an attempt to find a shared direction through similar challenges." But unlike the girlboss pop stars, itâs going to take a lot more than a photo op and a [fish sandwich]( for France and Germany to see eye-to-eye: âDespite this weekâs friendly handshakes and [solid]( show of support for Israel after Hamasâ attack, the two men are furiously paddling in opposite directions,â he writes. Thatâs a dangerous position to be in, considering  both countryâs economies are hamstrung by the war in Ukraine (and a lot of other complex issues) at the moment. Weâve got two columns up on the latest [inflation report](, and both of them look rather â¦Â conclusive? I donât want to jinx anything here, but itâs reallllly seeming like weâve reached the last stop on the inflation strugglebus. The pace of price increases has slowed drastically from its June 2022 peak of 9.1%. Jonathan Levinâs piece, â[What Iâve Learned From Watching Powellâs Inflation Fight](,â feels definitive, like writing [HAGS](! in a classmateâs middle school yearbook. For the past 19 months, Jonathan has spent his days opining on US markets as inflation hit its highest level in 40 years. âNaturally, I made mistakes in my early columns,â he writes, âbut Iâd like to think that Iâve learned a few things about 21st century central banking and inflation along the way.â Conor Senâs column, â[Hurting From Rate Hikes? The Fed Looks as If Itâs Finally Done](,â is equally airtight, arguing that market pricing, policymakersâ remarks and economic activity all point in the same direction: The Fed is likely finished raising interest rates. Itâs been a long battle, but weâve fought it together: Further Reading Growth in the working-age population has ended, but itâs [not bad news](. â Justin Fox A [recession](!? Yeah, right â in your dreams. â Karl Smith AI is about to remake [the rules]( of international trade. â Tyler Cowen [Inequality]( between the Western Cape and the rest of South Africa is growing. â Alexander Parker Some places are more [in need of jobs]( than others. Does President Biden understand that? â Claudia Sahm ICYMI Can a [banana heir]( save Ecuador? Senator Menendez got [indicted](. Young women are getting [lung cancer](. Kickers Bad Bunny pays [a lot of rent](. The brain is [high-res]( now. [This fruit]( is hard to come by. The âring of fireâ [eclipse]( is coming. A Vermont town has [banned]( influencers. Notes: Please send pawpaws 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? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. 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