Bloomberg Opinion

Free to read! Hong Kong dollar’s trading band of 7.75-7.85 per dollar has been around for 20 years. Is it time to tweak the band? My latest for Bloomberg Opinion

For longstanding critics of “rainbow capitalism,” a term referring to businesses that use imagery and language to appeal to #LGBTQ shoppers like me during #PrideMonth, the decline in corporate support is unsurprising, writes Michael Arceneaux for Bloomberg Opinion. The recent rollback only confirms suspicions that many companies never genuinely cared that much for queer and trans people. Nonetheless, it’s still hurtful to see the shift, particularly at a time when queer and trans people face political and social challenges. Companies should be called out. But this should also be seen as an opportunity for the LGBTQ community to remember its history of challenging inequities — and to recognize how vital that role continues to be. Read more with this gift link: https://bit.ly/45SavOq

Elon Musk issued his strongest sign of contrition yet over his handling of the dramatic break with Donald Trump. “I regret some of my posts about President [Trump] last week,” Musk posted Wednesday on X. “They went too far.” But making nice with Trump won’t fix the fact that too much now hangs on June’s robotaxi launch, says Liam Denning. Read what’s at stake: https://lnkd.in/ewnt6xsM

Tesla's stock has made back virtually all of last Thursday's slump when Elon Musk was laying into President Trump online. Ostensibly, investors are relieved at Musk's profession of "regret" and a brief clip of a purported robotaxi on a street in Austin. Two things. First, Musk may be trying to make nice, but I would venture what you really want from a CEO is the ability to control their impulse to pick a needless fight with the US president in the first place. Second, the robotaxi clip is only thrilling if you ignore Musk's years of promises about unleashing millions of self-driving Teslas everywhere at once. Even the new launch date of June 22 is described as 'tentative' by the man himself. Read my take on the relief rally here at Bloomberg Opinion https://lnkd.in/e6YBbRK3

As Jamie Dimon to David Solomon to Mark Zuckerberg crack down on naysayers, it's becoming clear that quashing dissent is the next step in the CEO playbook for re-exerting authority after a pandemic that shifted power into the hands of workers. But there are good reasons that everyone, and especially CEOs, should not just tolerate dissenters but encourage them. 🔗 Read my Bloomberg Opinion column on why dissent has value even when it's wrong, and how it changes our opinions — even if we don't acknowledge or realize it. https://lnkd.in/epDRUNcp 📽 Or watch the tl;dr video version:

The tragedy of the Mekong: The world’s largest inland fishery is facing threats from all sides, writes Daniel Moss. Beijing’s formidable influence has traction because no country or authority officially controls the historic waterway. Read the column: https://lnkd.in/eFGbpUFK

Apple kicked off its annual developer conference not with an update about the iPhone maker’s progress on artificial intelligence — the thing everyone in the tech world is worried about — but with an announcement about “Liquid Glass," which (I hate to say it!!!) looks *eerily* similar to the Windows desktop I was using in 6th grade computer lab class. Are you into the new design? Let me know in the comments 👇 and read my Bloomberg Opinion newsletter for more commentary: https://lnkd.in/eaK3E_Se

The Trump administration’s attack on the NIH is strangling the biotech industry’s innovation engine — and it could get much worse given the proposed 40% cut to the agency's budget. The brutal cuts to academic grants are an existential problem in the long-term, as fewer dollars mean fewer discoveries to be pulled from academia and into biotech and pharmaceutical companies. But industry could face a more immediate problem: a huge cut to the an NIH program that currently provides ~$1.3 billion in seed funding to biotech startups. SBIR/STTR grants are vital support for early-stage technology development and clinical trials--particularly for companies bubbling up outside of the typical biotech hubs or working in therapeutic areas outside the VC fads. Read more in my latest for Bloomberg Opinion (gift link): https://lnkd.in/dKHXYUMj

There's a really good chance that Trump's tariffs will outlast his time in office, and that bodes ill for a bunch of reasons, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Clive Crook can explain: Perhaps the most important force cementing tariffs in place will be their fiscal consequences. This came into sharper focus last week when the Congressional Budget Office did an official score of the revenues the new taxes will raise. According to the CBO’s numbers, if the new tariffs imposed between Jan. 6 and May 13 stick (30% on imports from China and Hong Kong, 25% on cars and auto parts, the 10% baseline tariff, the 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, and partial 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico), they would reduce budget deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years. This takes account of lower debt-interest payments, slightly slower economic growth, and inflation 0.4 percentage points higher this year and next. Nearly $3 trillion is an enormous sum, even by US budget standards — and as public debt continues to grow, the government will need that money. In discussions over the budget bill before Congress, projected tariff revenues aren’t directly involved. Official and unofficial scorers focus on the effects of the bill on projected deficits and debt while leaving tariffs to one side — they aren’t in the measure, they’re the result of executive action not legislation, and in the past the revenues have been both modest and stable, hence barely worth discussing. #tariffs #trade #deficit