| I never thought I’d see an alert from the Bloomberg Terminal with the phrase, “hot commie summer,” and yet here it is, screenshotted for posterity: What’s there to say!! I suppose I’ll start with the obvious disclaimer: Michael R. Bloomberg — the owner of this whole rodeo — was mayor of New York City for a dozen years. After him came Bill de Blasio, then Eric Adams. Now, with his shocking victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani might be the next name on that list. Yet a vocal group of critics say his policies — free buses, a rent freeze, city-owned grocery stores — would bring about doomsday for city dwellers. President Donald Trump called Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic.” Investors Daniel Loeb and Bill Ackman warned that Wall Street executives would flock to greener pastures. And Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis even jumped on the dogpile, saying that a Mamdani mayorship might be a boon for Palm Beach home prices. “The implication, apparently, is that the self-described democratic socialist will drive out the rich with new taxes and turn the home of Wall Street into a far-left hellscape,” Jonathan Levin writes. “Not only is that a speculative leap, but it defies logic,” he argues: “Florida’s attractiveness will always be a direct corollary of its proximity and easy access to New York — and the continued greatness of the latter. If New York stumbles, so will Florida.” Beyond business, the idea that the Sunshine State could completely replace the Big Apple is preposterous to Jonathan, who lives in South Florida full-time and knows the ultra-rich’s North-to-South migratory patterns like the back of his hand. From November to April — aka “the season” — the hedge fund bros attend charity polo matches, art fairs and tennis matches. When May rolls around, it’s back on the private jet to New England, where the wealthy oscillate between ZZ’s Club and the Sagaponack General Store. “No matter how much rich Republicans claim to dislike New York, most people in that crowd seem to find their way back to the Northeast during the sweltering summer months,” he writes. The bottom line? New York City is too good to leave. There’s really no other place like it in the world, something that all mayoral hopefuls can agree on. A New Villain Enters the Villa | Well, this can’t be good for Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s mental health: As soon as John Authers says the world has stopped talking about tariffs, Conor Sen says the economy is going soft. More specifically, the job market is going soft: While inflation is often seen as the main villain in America’s economic story, Conor is side-eyeing employment as a potential foil. “The job openings-to-unemployment ratio is back at levels last seen in late 2018,” he writes, and recent college grads and white-collar workers are finding it awfully tricky to find a job in a landscape where bosses are picking robots over humans. Stephen Mihm has his doubts about whether the AI hype will translate into real productivity gains, but CEOs might be too busy playing around with Claude to heed those warnings. The “emergent but inconclusive labor market risks pose a challenge for the Fed, which is dealing with multiple sources of inflation uncertainty, too, from tariffs to the tax legislation going through Congress,” Conor writes. Bloomberg’s editorial board believes a “wait and see” approach is the wisest course of action for Powell, despite the White House’s not-so-subtle calls for rate cuts. How are businesses faring against this ugly backdrop? Andrea Felsted zooms in on one of the more troubled titans in the retail world: Victoria’s Secret. She says President Trump’s tariffs will cost the lingerie company $50 million this year alone. Although VS is dressing up Sabrina Carpenter and doing hot dog collabs in LA, that doesn’t change the fact that most shoppers loathe underwire bras, hence why its share price is, ugh, sagging. Having two activists meddling with its affairs doesn’t seem to be helping, either. Andrea says investors want the company to resurrect the supermodel “angels” that used to grace the runway, “but what Victoria’s Secret really needs is a different kind of angel: a buyer. Ideally, one that can offer a decent bid premium to long-suffering shareholders and enable the company to do the hard work needed to adapt to a new lingerie landscape,” she writes. Adapting to a new landscape! That seems to be everyone’s MO these days. Bonus Economic Vibe Reading: FedEx has more to worry about than tariffs and a freight slump. — Thomas Black | 
