Price gouging tourists is A-OK

If you can afford the trip, you can afford to pony up for local attractions. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, the strongest array of talent Bloomberg Opinion has amassed in recent memory. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Tourists pay more]( to see the sights. - [Gas prices]( aren’t hitting new heights. - [For English football](, reality bites. - [An expansion]( of executive rights. [Endless Summer Vacation]( Last night, Mike Isaac [tweeted](, “Anyone who feels refreshed and ready to go after coming back from vacation is insane. You should show up to work depressed that your life is not an infinite holiday like any other normal human.” Which: YES! All I want to do is be [this lady]( all year round: Goals. @meetmyproject on Instagram Sadly, I’m nowhere near mastering the European diet of equal parts bread, butter and Aperol Spritz (a lifelong goal of mine, trust me). Instead, my summer vacation will include a three-and-a-half hour drive to the great state of Vermont, where I’ll hang out with 40+ aunts, uncles and cousins for KFW. (That’s “Karl Family Week,” for the dozen people reading this newsletter who aren’t my blood relatives.) A full 82% of Americans will be taking [a vacation]( this summer, with 42% going on multiple trips à la [Dua Lipa](. Some of these folks will get on a plane, fly all the way to Japan and make the trek to Himeji Castle, a centuries-old fortress that doubles as an [Instagram playground]( for those who say “aesthetic” at least ten times a day: A boat on a moat around Himeji Castle. Photographer: Charly Triballeau/AFP Gearoid Reidy [says]( the UNESCO World Heritage Site has been in the [headlines]( lately because the mayor wants to make foreign tourists pay about four times more than locals to enter the castle. Sounds like a lot, until you realize the current price of admission is only ¥1,000, or $6.20. Surely the [Bank of Mom and Dad]( can afford more than that. “Some restaurants are also [exploring]( ways to charge foreigners more, with many citing the cost of dealing with customers in other languages and adjusting menus,” he writes. Tourism spending is now Japan’s [second-largest export](, just behind cars, and Gearoid says the weak yen has taken the trend to extremes. (By the way, Daniel Moss says US Fed Chair Jerome Powell is [mainly to blame]( for the country’s currency woes.) Although Japan is crawling with tourists, the benefits of their disruptive presence are often elusive to pit-stops like Himeji. Visitors would rather stay the night in Osaka or Hiroshima, which boast a more colorful nightlife. “There’s a way to charge tourists more, but a municipality-by-municipality scattershot approach isn’t it. If the country can make clear who pays what, and how, there will likely be few objections,” Gearoid argues. [Speed Up, Gas Pedal]( For Americans staying stateside, gas prices will be top-of-mind this summer. Luckily, Liam Denning [assures me]( that the fuel for my trip from New York to Vermont will be cheap. If I were, say, driving from Alabama, that would be a different story: Although Biden’s record on gas prices is basically the same as Trump’s, all those purple bubbles in the middle of that chart should worry Democrats ahead of the election. Drivers in swing states “tend to pay a bit more at the pump and have suffered a slightly bigger price increase since Biden took office, $1.12 per gallon versus $1.06 nationally,” Liam explains. When you take personal income disparities into consideration, the contrast is even starker: “Pennsylvania aside, the swing states tend to look more like Trump-supporting states when it comes to gasoline’s share of the wallet.” Read [the whole thing](. Bonus Road Trip Reading: Only £315,000 for a Ferrari?! Plug-in hybrids are [coming under pressure]( in the used market. — Chris Bryant [The Euros at Glasto]( As we all know, it’s the summer of [live music](. But it’s also the [summer]( [of]( [sports](! So what happens when your concert lands smack dab in the middle of a football game you desperately want to watch? Well, if you’re a 32-year-old ex-boyband member named Louis Tomlinson, you [sneak]( a full-size television into Glastonbury Festival so you can watch England play Slovakia in the Euros: Iconic behavior. And dare I say, it might have brought England some luck? Although it was touch-and-go there for a moment, the UK national team managed to eke out [a win]( against the Slovaks. Up until this point, Matthew Brooker [says]( the squad has “been greeted with almost universal disappointment,” despite having “entered the tournament with the strongest array of talent it has amassed in recent memory.” What gives? Perhaps the team has one too many multimillionaire stars on its roster. “The too-much-talent effect suggests that in team sports such as football where interdependence is key, too much talent can impair performance,” Martin Kilduff, a professor of organizational behavior at University College London, told Matthew. Come to think of it, I could say the same thing about [One Direction](! Elections: Rapid-Fire Round “Quick! Tell me what’s going on in US politics in less than 30 seconds!” [Replacing Joe Biden]( is a fantasy Patricia Lopez says Democrats must abandon. Why? Switching candidates this late in the game “is excruciating and filled with logistical landmines,” she writes. Better to focus on defeating the “petty, vengeful man who talks openly of retribution.” Speaking of which: Tim O’Brien says [the Supreme Court just invited]( every president and their mother to commit crimes. It might seem like a win for Donald Trump, but the majority opinion still gives Special Counsel Jack Smith [plenty of leeway](, according to Stephen L. Carter. While the US has a collective freak-out about an election that’s more than five months away, France has more immediate worries. “The far right Rassemblement Nationale is on course for a triumph, while national leader Emmanuel Macron faces humiliation,” Max Hastings [writes](. The president’s gamble against far-right politician Marine Le Pen has backfired, and Lionel Laurent [says]( “an ungovernable France is a real risk.” This [map]( from Bloomberg News shows as much: Meanwhile, the UK looks headed for an electoral upheaval of its own. “On July 4, the British people are likely to do something remarkable: hand the Labour Party almost absolute power without subjecting it to even rudimentary scrutiny,” Adrian Wooldridge [writes](. While the cautious campaign may have been easy for Keir Starmer, Bloomberg’s editorial board [says]( running Britain’s next government will be anything but. Reversing “years of austerity following the financial crisis, a failure to invest in infrastructure and housing that dates much further back, and a [chronic inability]( to increase productivity growth,” will require urgent action. Further Reading SCOTUS gives [social media]( the highest level of constitutional protection. — Noah Feldman Argentina and the IMF shouldn’t rush into another [debt agreement](. — Juan Pablo Spinetto Cigarette labels were bad. [Social media labels]( would be worse. — Stephen Mihm Adidas is [Sambaing]( all over Nike and its high tops. — Andrea Felsted With Brightline, Florida shows how to make [passenger rail]( work. — Jonathan Levin Boeing should settle its [criminal fraud charges]( with one condition. — Thomas Black ICYMI The owner of [Soffe shorts]( filed bankruptcy. Record-breaking [Hurricane Beryl]( is gaining steam. 24-hour [stock trading]( is booming – and Wall Street is rattled. Summer camps are cracking down on [Sephora kids](. Kickers NDAs are [everywhere](. NYC’s [Din Tai Fung]( is ready to rip. [Thumbs up]( is the symbol of the season. Citi Bike docks [don’t charge]( bikes. Italy is paying people [to relocate]( to Tuscany. Notes: Please send [10,000 dumplings]( 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](. 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