Dark Linings in a Sunny Jobs Report

Today's Agenda

The job boom has an expiration date, though who knows when that is.
Maybe Amazon doesn't want to be Warren Buffett bait.
Trump didn't have to eat Bill Barr's soul.
The restaurant industry's digital future has arrived.

Yawn, More Job Growth

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.S. economic expansion that premiered 10 years ago is good but boring, like a long-running TV show past its prime. The latest episode hints at a grand finale down the road, though.

The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs last month, and unemployment tumbled to 3.6 percent, the lowest since Richard Nixon's first term. Great, but: Yawn! Jobs have grown for 103 straight months now. Under the hood, things were a little grittier. Unemployment fell because 490,000 people dropped out of the job market, which is not a good sign. And wage growth was as dull as ever on this old show.

During the Donald Trump administration, however, wage growth has been unusually fantastic for top-level bankers, Mark Whitehouse points out — just as Trump's blue-collar voters were promised:

And health-care hiring continued to surge, notes Justin Fox, another long-running subplot:

But a health-care boom is not necessarily a great sign for the broader economy, notes Justin. It's a “low-productivity sector,” he writes, and when it starts to outpace the broader job market, that could be a sign of a recession.

Anyway, the relentless strength of the economy has to be Trump's strongest selling point going into the 2020 election. Richard Carroll points out Trump's economic policy recipe — cutting taxes and regulation while boosting spending — did not ultimately work out so well for George W. Bush, or the rest of us. Still, it could be a while before that particular plot line wraps up.

Bonus economy reading: Rising productivity explains why inflation is low, and why the Fed should leave rates alone despite a strong job market. – Karl W. Smith

When a Berkshire Buy-In Is a Mixed Blessing

Warren Buffett has created at least seven Berkshire Hathaway Inc. billionaires partly by keeping fast-growing, money-burning tech companies out of his investment vehicle's portfolio. So it may seem odd that Berkshire has lately been buying shares of the infamous cash pyromaniac Amazon.com Inc. But Shira Ovide notes Amazon — while still not quite the value play Buffett typically favors — is growing much more slowly these days, and making a bit more profit, than it once did. Whether that's something other investors beyond Berkshire Hathaway will enjoy, Shira is less sure.

Trump's Soulmate, William Barr

Former FBI director James Comey wrote this week about how Trump “eats” the “soul” of his employees, turning formerly strong-willed, accomplished individuals into spineless toadies. But Attorney General William Barr is not such a person, writes Tim O'Brien, because Barr's soul has always been aligned with Trump's on the issue of whether the presidency should be exempt from the laws of mere commoners. Barr seems more than comfortable doing whatever Trump needs, including subverting the rule of law and misleading Congress and the American people, Tim writes.

Bonus political reading: Don't trust Joe Biden's early polling bounce; the Dem race (soon to include Bill de Blasio) is still wide open. – Jonathan Bernstein

Bleep Blorp I'm a Restau-bot

Having seen brick-and-mortar retail decimated by the rise of online shopping, the restaurant industry has long been bracing for its own digital apocalypse. The latest quarter's industry profit reports suggest that future has already arrived, writes Sarah Halzack. Happily, many chains, from Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. to McDonald's Corp., seem to be adapting to the new paradigm fairly well, despite the added complicating factors of third-party delivery services such as Uber Eats.

Telltale Charts

Though investor cash keeps pouring into blockchain technology, it could prove to be useless, warns Noah Smith.

Adidas AG has Beyonce and a lot more going for it in the race against Nike Inc., writes Andrea Felsted. So why is it playing things so safe?

ICYMI

China's deadly swine virus is affecting the global food chain.

Deutsche Bank has seen Trump's tax returns.

How Satya Nadella remade Microsoft.

Kickers

If it rains at the Kentucky Derby, bet on the mudder. (h/t Ellen Kominers)

Update: Russia's spy whale has defected to Norway. (h/t Scott Kominers)

We need a new physics to explain the emergence of life.

Scientists use americium to generate electricity, with implications for space travel.

What number of kids makes parents happy?

Photos of the week.

Note: Please send pork and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

New to Bloomberg Opinion Today? Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mark Gongloff is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. He previously was a managing editor of Fortune.com, ran the Huffington Post's business and technology coverage, and was a columnist, reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal.