February 2, 2026

THAT WOULD BE NICE: Former Trump economic official Gary Cohn says Kevin Warsh will ‘take the Fed back to its traditional’ norms.

“He was instrumental in that crisis,” Cohn said. “Kevin was the point person at the Fed — he was involved in every one of those discussions. And I truly believe, without Kevin’s expertise, and without Kevin being there, we would not have come out of the 2008 crisis as well as we have.”

The president’s selection of Warsh as his nominee was expected to be viewed as a safe choice on Wall Street given his monetary policy experience and well-established views on inflation.

Cohn said he expects Warsh to “stay out of a lot of the non-financial issues,” while he is “going to be involved, obviously, in setting interest rate policy.”

Looks like a real improvement over Powell — still, maybe the best selection for Fed Chair would be a dedicated “End the Fed!” type.

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot:

Chaser: Billie Eilish gets permanent restraining order against man who repeatedly turned up to her home.

—Metro News, June 19th, 2020.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

EZRA KLEIN AND MUZZLE VELOCITY:

He didn’t seem overwhelmed at all, and that was at night, on a gruelingly noisy plane, grilled by reporters after an evening event where, as WaPo puts it, “Trump tries humor, gets some silence, at black-tie dinner with ‘people I hate.'”

He seemed to be up for all of it. But I’m pretty sure Klein wants to think otherwise: “This is a presidency that is, by any measure, failing. Trump is unpopular; his brutality and his tariffs have turned immigration and affordability, once among of his strongest issues, into liabilities. Trump’s opposition is increasingly united and mobilized; Democrats are besting Republicans in elections all across the country and disciplined, brave, beautiful protest movements have emerged in the cities ICE has sought to occupy.”

By any measure? That can’t be true. He’s at least succeeding by that measure of “muzzle velocity” and the measure of courage and optimism in facing a hostile press. Ironically, Klein is exhibiting the same kind of optimism, energy, and boasting to which Trump is so deeply committed.

One of them’s right and it’s not Young Ezra. Who’s not so young as he was when that name was coined, but the, none of us is.

Posted at 12:24 pm by Glenn Reynolds

I ALREADY LOVE HER, YOU DON’T HAVE TO KEEP SELLING ME:

Posted at 12:11 pm by Glenn Reynolds

IT’S AN INSURRECTION, AND AN INSURGENCY, AND IT’S FOREIGN-FUNDED AND ORGANIZED:

Posted at 12:07 pm by Glenn Reynolds

FINGERS CROSSED: ‘We’re not in a bubble yet’ because only 3 out of 4 conditions are met, top economist says. Cue the OpenAI IPO.

Owen Lamont, a portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management and a former University of Chicago finance professor, said that while the market looks and feels frothy, we are not currently in an AI bubble. As he talked to Fortune from his office in Boston, the S&P 500 breached 7,000 for the first time, but he wasn’t dissuaded. To Lamont, the tell-tale sign of a bubble is equity issuance, when corporate executives, the ultimate insiders, rush to sell overvalued stock to the public.

“Part of the reason I think there’s not a bubble is I don’t see the smart money as acting like there’s a bubble,” he told Fortune. “Maybe I should say there’s not a bubble yet.”

In his view, the smoking gun for a bubble forming would be companies going public and selling equity. That would be a play for the dumb money, he added.
…
Lamont’s bubble-detection framework relies on “Four Horsemen”: overvaluation, bubble beliefs, issuance, and inflows. While he conceded that three of these are present in the market of early 2026—valuations are high, retail investors are piling in, and sentiment is frothy—the absence of issuance disqualifies the current cycle from bubble status.

In the meantime, enjoy the ride.

Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green

THE MISSING MEN OF UNC. UNC-Chapel Hill is now slightly more than 60/40 women to men. This is more lopsided in terms of sex balance than most big state schools because NC’s big engineering school is at NC State, but this is just another wake-up call that there is a mismatch between what our culture (likely) needs and what our institutions are designed to deliver. (I say “likely” because you can credibly argue that men are less likely to need a college degree because of the nature of the jobs they may select.)

Posted at 10:05 am by Robert Shibley

RESIST: LAPD Says It Will Not Enforce Gavin Newsom’s Mask Ban For ICE Agents.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the policy makes little sense from a safety standpoint, ABC7 Los Angeles reported. He called the law a poor public policy decision that lacked proper consideration.

We are in line with our federal partners on everything except immigration enforcement,” McDonnell said. “What we’ve seen since June here in Los Angeles and seen across the country, we’re as frustrated as everybody else — about the way that’s being done.”

McDonnell told reporters at a news conference that one armed agency confronting another over a misdemeanor creates unnecessary conflict, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. He said his department’s job is to de-escalate situations rather than escalate them.

Federal agents shouldn’t be masked — but there’s really no alternative when the Left has turned to doxxing and violence.

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green

CHANGE:

Make the Western Hemisphere Great Again.

Tangentially related in Venezuela: That Must Have Been One Heck of a Phone Call. “The actions that have followed in the few days since sort of give you an idea of exactly how that phone call went down. I’m guessing Trump may have reminded her that there could easily be a ‘second wave.'”

Posted at 9:20 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Are So Lunatic That Conservatives Root for the Feds Now. “I live right next to downtown, and while I was out for a long walk on Friday afternoon, a lot of the protesters were walking through my neighborhood, on their way back to wherever it is they go to feast on bile and bitterness. They were dragging their signs along with them, looking like they were returning from a funeral. They were all beyond miserable.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

MINNESOTA FRAUD OLDER THAN THOUGHT: An FBI raid on a fraudulently run child care center in 2015 suggests things have been rotten in Minnesota than previously thought. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has reforms to get a handle on all of the fraud.

Posted at 8:58 am by Mark Tapscott

THE GOVERNMENT AS CURRENTLY CONSTITUTED IS JUST A MONEY LAUNDRY FOR POLITICAL TYPES:

Posted at 8:52 am by Glenn Reynolds