That’s All, Folks: Gary Cohn Out At White House

Well that’s it, folks.

Gary Cohn has seen enough. First thing Tuesday morning in “It’s High Noon For Gary Cohn’s White House Career,” we noted that Cohn’s departure was likely imminent in the wake of Trump’s decision to slap punitive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Sure enough, The New York Times reports that Gary will be leaving the White House in the coming weeks. To wit:

Gary D. Cohn, President Trump’s top economic adviser, plans to resign, becoming the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the Trump administration, White House officials said on Tuesday.

The officials insisted there was no single factor behind the departure of Mr. Cohn, who heads the National Economic Council. But his decision to leave came after he seemed poised to lose an internal struggle amid a Wild West-style process over Mr. Trump’s plan to impose large tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

“Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again,” Mr. Trump said in a statement to The New York Times. “He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people.”

You’re encouraged to recall the history here (from the first post linked above):

Last August, Cohn was aghast when, following the Charlottesville boondoggle, his boss decided to turn a press conference ostensibly convened to discuss infrastructure into a not-so-funny episode of Drunk History, complete with Donald Trump reminding America that “George Washington was a major slave owner.”

Because you might have understandably decided to erase that exceedingly unfortunate episode from your memory, allow me to rekindle the moment. At one point, it devolved into Trump literally demanding that reporters tell him whether or not they are Thomas Jefferson fans (“What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? Do you like him?”).

Again, Cohn was there and can be seen in the following infamous snapshot, beaming with pride:

A couple of days later, a rumor began circulating among traders that Gary was thinking of resigning. That rumor catalyzed one of the worst days for stocks in all of 2017 (this was back when 1% moves in either direction were a big deal). Here’s the chart (click it to enlarge):

SPX

It should thus come as no surprise that USDJPY is taking a notable leg lower on the headlines:

USDJPY

Futures are diving:

ES

And Axios reports that the meeting Cohn planned on Thursday with end users of steel and aluminum has been canceled.

  • TRUMP SAID TO CANCEL THUR. TARIFF MEETING COHN ARRANGED: AXIOS

Clearly, Trump knew this was coming when he tweeted this, first thing on Tuesday morning:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/971006379375972354

You can expect this to weigh heavily on risk sentiment.

Oh, and Lloyd is “disappointed”:

More to come.

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13 thoughts on “That’s All, Folks: Gary Cohn Out At White House

  1. Collapse in USD, US standard of living and US economy lies ahead. Give it another year or two.

    This poilicy track pretty much assures it. So do recent USD charts as I’ve discussed elsewhere.

    Uber-bearish the dollar. Already the worst currency for a 2nd consecutive year, it’s gonna puke more.

    Ironically, Trump’s brain dead base that he purportedly is protecting are likely to get hurt the most.

    Stupid idiotic president and some totally incompetent advisors…Peter? Sounds like the name of a dick.

    And shame on all the clueless democraps jumping on this bandwagon of the economically-ignorant.

  2. BTW, why don’t I get e-mail notifications anymore for newly posted articles? No they’re not in my spam. Anyone? Do others have this same issue?
    Tq.

      1. Dan, thank you. This was indeed missing in my wordpress list of subs. So I resubscribed here and wordpress list now contains Heisenberg again. I have NOT been dropped by WordPress for other blogs, some of which I’ve subbed for years. .

        I’ve no idea why WordPress unsub’d me, but as it’s apparently not uncommon, I’d be pissed if I were the content publisher (Heisenberg) because obviously views and revenue are being lost due to some WordPress screwup.

    1. In the red now. And USD is trading on the losing side of the month-opening range, which typically leads to more of the same short-term as it shows that momentum and weight is to the downside.

    2. Some ppl are pointing to what happened after the steel tariffs in 2002 (US dollar and stocks cratered), but obviously it’s a ridiculously small sample size and there’s no clear cause-and-effect.

  3. We will now witness Trump UNLEASHED. If we have been witnessing Trump with some good people around him, how do we think he will do with a guy like Cohen now gone?

    Scary!

  4. Wildly successful debt loving, wage earner abusing, corporate welfare hack, part and parcel of the fantasy financial markets. Why would he stick around, he served his purpose now he can join the rest of his blood suckers and rattle on about with the conniving narrative about bringing people back into the workforce etc etc.I can already feel his hand reaching into my billfold again!

  5. I’m not sure that when Trump promised to “drain the swamp” that he was planning to start with his own White House.

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