We need to talk about America’s military spending

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a Voltron of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda U.S. defense spending is out of cont [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a Voltron of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - U.S. [defense spending is out of control](. - Video-game [sexism is out of control](. - The [wage-price spiral risks]( getting out of control. - [OPEC+ is not yet]( out of control. Indefensible Spending Here is a fun [chart]( to look at and share with others whenever government spending is a subject of controversy, as it has been lately: Such extravagance might make sense if the Pentagon were maintaining a protective force field around the country, or if all the rivals on the left side of the chart had the ability to form a [Voltron](, as one Twitter comedian suggested.  But — and you might want to sit down for this — the Pentagon is instead wasting a lot of that $700+ billion. It prices [toilet seats]( and hammers the way Lucille Bluth prices produce: A rare point of agreement for our major political parties is that the Pentagon should be able to light as much money on fire as it wants, perhaps to build a bonfire to ward off our enemies. But Bloomberg’s editorial board writes [this isn’t the kind of bipartisanship the country needs.]( Congress and President Joe Biden should find outdated weapons systems to scrap, cheaper toilet seats to buy, and other ways to rationalize the defense budget. Maybe we can even save enough for our own Voltron. It’s About Sexism in Gaming Ludicrous military spending is a problem at least as old as the [Eisenhower]( administration. Just as intractable, though a good bit younger, is the problem of sexism in video games. To the industry’s credit, it has started to address the issue, by every once in a while acknowledging that women can [do stuff now]( besides get captured and excite teenage boys. It hasn’t gone far enough, though, writes Tae Kim. Like the depressingly long list of other industries where this is still a problem, gaming needs to have more [women creating games and running companies](. Telltale Charts The key to inflation in 2022, John Authers writes, is - whether [workers will be able to get raises to keep up]( with rising prices, and - whether companies will then raise prices to cover the raises, triggering - a wage-price spiral of the kind we haven’t seen in decades. Except for its oil-price-crushing rift in 2020, [OPEC+ has had a remarkably successful first five years](. But they’ve also been remarkably turbulent, writes Julian Lee. The future should be smooth sailing, though! Just kidding. Further Reading [Biden’s 2021 would have gone much better]( if he had just enacted a smaller Covid relief plan. — Matt Yglesias Don’t [mock older Americans for fearing inflation]( if you weren’t around the last time it happened. — Virginia Postrel [Amsterdam is becoming a financial hub]( post-Brexit, but Europe needs more to compete with U.S. and Asian markets. — Lionel Laurent Planning to [move in with your home-owning lovah](? Make sure you sign a bunch of legal documents first. — Erin Lowry ICYMI The CDC [cut recommended Covid isolation time]( from 10 days to five. So many [flights are getting canceled](. How [Shopify is beating Amazon](. Kickers Scientists just identified a [new human jaw muscle](. Some Greenlanders have a [gene that makes eating sugar healthy](. RIP to [E.O. Wilson](. Welcome to [Dead Week](, truly the most wonderful time of the year. Notes: Please send sugar and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. 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](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022