October 30, 2026

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK PRESIDENT CHRISTINE LAGARDE TO STEP DOWN NEXT FEBRUARY, MONTHS BEFORE HER MANDATE ENDS:

Christine Lagarde will leave her post as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) on 7 February 2027, the central bank announced on Thursday, around nine months before her eight-year term was due to end.

The news immediately kicks off a closely watched race for one of Europe’s most powerful jobs at a time of economic stagnation and global turmoil. Her succession will be decided by the 21 countries that share the euro.

How much economic stagnation? This much: Is this the real reason Christine Lagarde is leaving the ECB?

A simmering crisis in the French bond markets threatens to explode at any time. Over the last month, the amount that France has to pay on its massive debts has been rising relentlessly. France now has to pay more to borrow money than Greece or even Italy. The ‘spread’ over German debt, the key measure of risk, has risen to levels not seen since the height of the Eurozone crisis in 2012. On the prediction markets there is now a 9 per cent chance of France defaulting on its debts by the end of 2027. If so, it will blow up the single currency. France is too big to fail. And yet it may also be too big to rescue.

That puts Lagarde in an awkward position. To start with, she is partly responsible for the crisis. By printing money on a vast scale, and by capping yields on Italian debt to keep its debts manageable, she enabled her friend President Macron to borrow on a vast scale. Without the ECB’s intervention the markets would have stopped France from borrowing so much in the first place. Next, she is French. If the central bank does have to step in with some form of rescue package for France, it would probably be best, to put it politely, if the person in charge was Dutch, Irish, Spanish or even German. A French led bailout of France may be too much for the other members of the zone. The ECB is starting to look like a sinking ship. Lagarde may well be getting out just in time – but she won’t do her reputation any good by leaving just as it is about to go down.

How perilous is it at the ECB? So bad that even the “We Are All Socialists Now” WaPo is paraphrasing Margaret Thatcher: “Europe is running out of other people’s money.” (Link safe; goes to Stephen Kruiser at PJM.)

Related: Lagarde denies getting the Harry Reid treatment on the way out: Lagarde’s bandages due to a ‘little skin cancer,’ not ‘kick-boxing in Thailand.’

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

NEW YORK POST FOR THE WIN ONCE MORE:

Posted at 2:03 pm by Stephen Green

GOODER AND HARDER, NYC: Hochul just confessed: She’ll give Mamdani his tax hikes next year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s artful dodge on the issue tells you all you need to know: She’s going to give Mayor Zohran Mamdani at least some of his tax hikes — next year, once she’s safely re-elected.

This year, she sent him some state money and OK’d some dodgy new borrowing, then pushed through his pied-à-terre tax; asked outright this week if she’ll give him more next year as a reward for his support now, she offered only a coy “There are no quid pro quos,” conspicuously saying nothing about taxes but pointedly saying she looks forward “to continue working in partnership” with the mayor on matters of mutual interest.

Until now, the gov has sworn up, down and backward to oppose increasing taxes on the rich.

Yeah, well — she lied.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

THE REICH STUFF: After warning about fascism, the Left proposes seizing private corporations.

The endless cries of creeping fascism from the Left have become exhausting, particularly when progressives keep reminding us that their problem isn’t authoritarianism itself, but who gets to wield the authority.

The most recent example? Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor under Bill Clinton – a man who routinely warns about fascism – advocating for the government to seize control of private companies.

Reich wants a Democrat-controlled government to cut off Elon Musk’s government contracts and prepare to nationalize SpaceX and Starlink if they regain power. In the spirit of Marx himself, Reich wants the state to take ownership of Musk’s lucrative companies.

This isn’t all that new a development, though:

● Nationalize Greyhound.

—Jacobin, December 2023.

(If only there was a preexisting nationalized passenger transportation system that has existed for decades that we could use as a benchmark to see how nationalizing Greyhound would likely proceed.)

● “Let’s nationalize Fox News: Imagining a very different media…Excerpted from ‘Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA.’

—Salon.com, January 18, 2014.

● “Like [the late communist Pete] Seeger and the FDR cargo cult, Salon also harbors turn-the-clock-back fantasies of their own: Last month, the publication called for the nationalization of the news media because it was uncomfortable with the glut of right-leaning news and opinion led by — you guessed it! — Fox News. (Hmmm — I wonder if someone in the FCC read that article?) Now the Website wishes to turn the clock back on the film industry because of a perceived glut of independent films.”

—Easy Riders, Raging Stasists, Ed Driscoll.com, February 22, 2014.

● “Let’s nationalize Amazon and Google: Publicly funded technology built Big Tech. They’re huge and ruthless and define our lives. They’re close to monopolies. Let’s make them public utilities.”

—Salon.com, July 8, 2014.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE OCEANS AREN’T GETTING ANY SMALLER:

“We have to either retreat from world commitments and leave civilization to the tender mercies of the PRC and other bad-faith actors, or step up and build and support the fleet that is required.”

The world was a pretty decent place when the Royal Navy and later the USN were big enough to make it that way.

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green

Jonathan Turley: “YOU ARE WHITE-PRESENTING:” Texas Judge Ordered to Undergo Psychiatric Testing After Bar Complaint.

Judge Ada Brown of the Northern District of Texas has been suspended pending psychiatric testing and the resolution of a bar complaint after a bizarre hearing in April 2026. In the hearing, Brown, a Trump appointee, went on a racial diatribe against a lawyer, Ezra Young, over his race. Young was accused of being White. When Young informed her that he is Hispanic, Judge Brown went on to say that he is “white-presenting” in continuing her racial browbeating.

Judge Brown was also accused of abandoning her work, but the hearing has caused the most chatter among lawyers.

Young filed a complaint against Brown following the hearing in Dallas. In the hearing, Brown, a Black woman with Native American ancestry, accused Young of mistreating Black attorneys. She barred Young from practicing in her courtroom after an unhinged tongue-lashing.

It appears Young, a Columbia Law School graduate and solo practitioner, has had previous run-ins with Judge Brown.  At the hearing, Brown accused Young of “racial bullying” toward Black attorneys in the case.

Judge Brown apparently had an axe to grind over an article that appeared in an earlier case involving a black professor. Brown referenced an article that quoted a brief filed by Young that referenced another law professor apparently comparing what happened in the tenure denial to a “lynching.”

Exit quote: “I’m not White, Your Honor.”

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

TO BE FAIR, HE’S ALWAYS BEEN A DICK…:

…he just doesn’t hide it as well when he’s frustrated.

Posted at 1:01 pm by Stephen Green

ACCOUNTABILITY WORKS:

More:

The President submitted a budget request that challenged NASA to do more with less. I provided testimony on the budget because, as you would see in OIG reports, there are examples where NASA was not the best at resource allocation and outcomes suffered. But ultimately, Congress appropriated funding, as is its responsibility.

Then we had a year like 2026: the Artemis II mission went very well and we immediately press on to Artemis III, not wasting time or money, six astrophysics missions set records; we held “too big to fail” programs accountable for being over budget and behind schedule; and we launched new initiatives in a logical, iterative way, like Moon Base and SR-1 Freedom. A flagship mission like Roman launched ahead of schedule. X-planes are actually flying again (and on their way to KSC at this moment). We have dramatically rebuilt the workforce, added thousands of civil servants, and put our machine shops back to building hardware. We have taken control of our destiny and put NASA back in the driver seat. And as a result, we have a President who has clearly taken notice and is showing a lot of interest in America’s space program, from Artemis to Roman.

This is how you go from being asked to do more with less to being asked to do more with more.

That last line deserves a monument somewhere in Washington.

Posted at 12:28 pm by Stephen Green

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T TAKE THE BLACK PILL:

Posted at 11:59 am by Stephen Green

SOCIALISM IS JUST PEOPLE WHO NEVER DID ANYTHING ORDERING AROUND THE PEOPLE WHO DO THINGS UNTIL NOTHING GETS DONE:

I’m old enough to remember when Newsweek was the more-or-less centrist of the big newsweeklies.

UPDATE (From Ed): I’m old enough to remember when the then-Washington Post-owned Newsweek declared at the dawn of the Obama era:

In the February 16 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands February 9), “We Are All Socialists Now,” Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas observe that the America of 2009 has become a more socialist country, and the shift began not under a Democrat but a Republican. Plus: how the United States is turning European; the draw of gangs in L.A.; the blackberry president; why Americans don’t hate the rich; and an interview with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. (PRNewsFoto/NEWSWEEK) (Newscom TagID: prnphotos078747) [Photo via Newscom]
Posted at 11:28 am by Stephen Green

WAS THAT WRONG? California High-Speed Rail Chief Quits Over Spending Scandal. “Earlier this month, the board voted to strip Choudri of his authority to sign or manage contracts under $25 million, and also required in-house legal review of contracts, which must have taken most of the fun out of the job — but more on that below.”

Posted at 11:13 am by Stephen Green

BUCKLE UP: Taiwan 2027 conflict window remains valid, Army Pacific commander says.

Known as the “Davidson window,” the timeline is named for retired Adm. Phil Davidson, former head of US Indo-Pacific Command. In 2021, Davidson told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China could develop the capability to invade Taiwan within the following six years.

The 2027 date has since served as a planning benchmark for US and allied forces preparing to deter potential Chinese aggression against the self-governed island, which Beijing claims as its territory.

Clark, who served as Davidson’s chief of staff when he made the proclamation, said Army Pacific is working to move forces and equipment in the region to deter conflict during that period.

“We’ve embarked upon a strategic approach to setting the theater that we refer to as Army Ready Forward,” Clark said. The effort involves positioning equipment, materiel and personnel on a rotational basis across the first and second island chains west of the international date line.

The goal is to be ready by April 2, 2027, he said.

It’s been surreal, the Pentagon openly talking about this risk for six years, and until recently, doing so little about it.

Posted at 10:42 am by Stephen Green

VOTE AS THOUGH YOUR LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY DEPEND UPON IT:

Posted at 10:26 am by Stephen Green