If Kyte Baby won't help working moms, who will?

Plus: The return of Trump, reusable bag data and more. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a uniformly dreary affair of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Kyte Baby did [a bad thing](. - [Nikki Haley]( isn’t kissing Trump’s ring. - [Reusable bags]( aren’t always king. - China’s [economy]( is feeling the sting. Bye Bye Kyte Baby It took less than four weeks and we already have a very strong contender for 2024’s top Harvard Business School case study. The subject? [Kyte Baby](, a luxury sleepwear company for infants. Now, before you go telling me, “I don’t wanna read about $75 sleep sacks and $48 baby joggers made of hypoallergenic bamboo fabric,” trust me when I say this is a god-tier example of a corporate unforced error. Let’s set the scene. One of Kyte Baby’s employees adopted a 22-week-old son in the neonatal intensive care unit. The stingy [two weeks of paid leave]( she got wasn’t nearly enough time for the newborn to leave the NICU, so the employee sent in a request to see if she could work remotely. Instead of saying something like, “Of course, this is a workplace built by mothers for babies and we pride ourselves on that,” the CEO essentially said, “No can do, sister.” Which — what?!? Sarah Green Carmichael says “it would be as if Patagonia employees were caught chopping down a redwood, or if Walt Disney had announced a strip club at its theme parks. It’s not just off-brand: it’s anti brand.” When Kyte Baby customers caught wind of all this drama, they started chucking their child’s bamboo sleep sacks in the snow. The babywear company’s TikTok page is drowning in negative comments and its Instagram has lost thousands of followers: The story gets even more confusing when you watch the CEO, Ying Liu — who started her company to help her baby with eczema, mind you — try and apologize not [once]( but [twice]( for her “terrible decision” that was both “insensitive” and “selfish.” The saga reflects a worrisome trend in the workplace: the evaporation of corporate flexibility. “During the height of the pandemic, many working moms did three jobs, all from home: Their paying job; the job of being their child’s teacher; and their job of being their child’s mom,” Sarah writes. Although some of those mothers were verging on losing their sanity, “the wheels of business kept turning. Productivity [didn’t crater](. Profit margins [rose](.” Despite that, [remote work]( is on the decline and a lot of working moms are stuck groveling for a modicum of leniency. Beth Kowitt [says]( there are monetary consequences for that inflexibility: “Rather than take a job that requires they travel at a moment’s notice or regularly work nights and weekends, even the highest-earning women get diverted into jobs that don’t require as many hours. The trade-off is, of course, a lower paycheck.” Although the gender pay gap is the [smallest on record](, it’s barely moved over the last decade. Policies that force women to either show up or send in their two-week notice are a major reason why progress on wage fairness is so stagnant. The fact that a baby clothing company, of all places, didn’t seem to comprehend that is beyond troubling. Bonus Business Reading: Family-owned businesses have a painful problem: [the heir gap](. — Adrian Wooldridge Hiring a President Isn’t Easy When most people apply for a job, they do a few things. First, they clean up their resume. Second, they get recommendations from people they worked with in the past. Third, they make sure to review their personal social media accounts. Nobody wants to get fired for a cavalier tweet they sent in 2008 or a picture they posted next to a keg when they were underage. But as always with Donald Trump, the rules simply do not apply. Instead of polishing up his resume, he’s holed up in the [courthouse](. Instead of seeking the help of his former colleagues, he’s [bashing]( them online. As for his most-followed social account, X, he’s done no cleaning up. At the top of his feed sits a [mug shot]( that says “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. NEVER SURRENDER!” Most HR professionals would never allow his application to surface. But this is the USA, baby — every voter is a hiring manager. And if the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries were the first round of interviews, Trump passed with flying colors. “Trump will have a ferocious MAGA wind at his back as he rolls into his contest with President Joe Biden,” Francis Wilkinson [writes]( (free read). That doesn’t mean he has the presidency in the bag. Although Nikki Haley lost by double digits in New Hampshire, [her voters will haunt Trump]( until the day we decide whether to hire him in November. The Republicans who “have misgivings about his misogyny or his alleged felonies likely pose a serious challenge,” Francis says. And “Trump’s rallies this time around have been uniformly dreary affairs, all menace and grievance and simmering paranoia,” Bloomberg’s editorial board [note]( (free read). Although Trump occasionally takes his job interviews seriously enough to mention concrete ideas — more tariffs, more oil, more drama — they’re often misleading. Consider his attacks on health care: “Obamacare is a catastrophe. Nobody talks about it,” he said earlier this month. “But facts can be inconvenient things,” Mary Ellen Klas [writes](. “There may not have been a lot of talk about the Affordable Care Act, but there’s been some significant action,” she notes. Trump’s efforts to “repeal and replace” it would hurt rural voters — a key constituency he needs in his corner this year. And so here we are: A man facing 91 felony charges and counting has made it to the second round of interviews. Are you really prepared for him to be your boss next year? Bonus Political Reading: - Welcome to 2024, where the [political voice]( you hear on the phone might have been conjured on the internet. — Parmy Olson - Trump’s return to power could tank relations with China. Beijing must [make nice]( with other players. — Minxin Pei Telltale Charts In today’s edition of Yikes, That’s NOT Good! let’s explore those plastic bag bans your mother-in-law couldn’t shut up about in 2020. “Far from reducing the consumption of polymers and the associated pollution, prohibiting single-use shopping sacks may well be increasing both problems,” David Fickling [writes](. In New Jersey, plastic bag use for groceries increased threefold after their ban. How can that be?! Well, we ditched the flimsy Have a Nice Day [disposable bags]( for “reusable” ones, which are often seasonal or feature a random cartoon character, and are made with [thicker, glossy polyethylene](. Trouble is, you gotta use be using your [Dora the Explorer]( tote bag *52 times* before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one. “Our rising consumption of plastics for shopping bags suggests we’re not reusing at anything like that rate,” he warns. Last year was supposed to be China’s year. In 2023, Xi Jinping waved bye-bye to Covid Zero and reopened the economy, hoping to bring deals and prosperity to all. But that didn’t happen. Instead of basking in a torrent of pent-up consumer demand, China faces a debt crisis that’s forcing rapid stock selloffs. Shuli Ren [says]( Beijing’s situation turned out “more doom than boon. January is not over yet, and the Hang Seng Index already has slumped by over 10%, making it the worst-performing among major global indexes.” And the housing market isn’t looking so hot, either. If a financial crisis erupts, “China will be its root cause, and Hong Kong the epicenter,” she writes. Further Reading Taiwan may have [lost a friend]( in Nauru, but the Philippines still has its back. — Karishma Vaswani No [budget-friendly vacation]( for you: Europe is busy catering to the whims of the world’s 1%. — Rachel Sanderson The euro may be celebrating its [25th birthday]( this month, but the dollar remains king. — Marcus Ashworth Japan [shouldn’t apologize]( for the way it treated a US Navy officer who got in a car accident. — Gearoid Reidy China’s [stock-market rout]( isn’t fixable by quick stimulus. — John Authers and Isabelle Lee It’d be a big mistake for central banks [to stay tight]( for too long. — Daniel Moss Britain’s [steel industry]( needs to confront a cold, hard truth. — Matthew Brooker A pastor got his [crypto scam]( audited. — Matt Levine ICYMI Jon Stewart is [returning]( to The Daily Show. Chipotle is gearing up for [burrito season](. [Tech stocks]( are back on top. Israel is [turning]( to Indian workers. The pope is [worried]( about [AI](. Kickers Women don’t want to [wear pants](. All the [Josh wine memes](, explained. Saudi Arabia’s [liquor store]( is only for diplomats. [These are the hotels]( of the next White Lotus. Police found a [severed head]( in a Brooklyn freezer. Notes: Please send burritos 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. 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. 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