It’s too stupid, I can’t take it. Or at least not without laughing at something that shouldn’t be, and isn’t, funny.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday dispensed with Donald Trump’s contention that he never had any inclination to fire Jerome Powell.

Nick Timiraos didn’t put it quite that way, but what his latest — with Brian Schwartz and Josh Dawsey — did suggest is that Trump had to be dissuaded from, and otherwise talked out of, moving against Powell by Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick. When Howard’s the voice of reason, you’ve got a problem.

Apparently, Bessent and Lutnick were by Monday convinced Trump was serious about Powell’s ouster, and indeed White House lawyers had explored ways to fire him for “cause,” a gambit which seemed unlikely to succeed given that… well, given that there was no cause.

Scott and Howard, presumably terrified they might wake up Tuesday morning to an inconvenient Truth — that’s a great joke, you’re welcome — “warned Trump that such a move could trigger far-reaching market chaos, a messy legal fight [and] likely wouldn’t lead to any practical change on interest rates,” according to Timiraos’s account which, as noted here Tuesday, you can generally trust. If it’s about the Fed, and Nick wrote it, it’s not “fake news.”

Thank God for Scott and Howard. Because man, oh man: Powell being escorted out of the Eccles building with his hands zip-tied is a one-way ticket to limit-down.

Anyway, another left-tail removed, I suppose. Powell’s job’s probably secure for now, which means one existential threat’s off the table. I still think Powell’s done if SCOTUS overturns Humphrey’s Executor, but he doesn’t have to last very long to serve out the remainder of his term.

Between relief on that front and the perception that the worst-case trade scenarios are unlikely to materialize (even as the tariff outlook remains dramatically worse than it was prior to April 2), vol-of-vol’s coming off the boil.

VVIX was 104 at the lows on Wednesday. The local peak was 190 on April 9.

The VIX has come in a fair bit too. So, is iVol cheap? I mean, let’s face it, Trump could change his mind again and decide a certain “major loser” has to go after all. And even if there are no more surprises (narrator: there will be plenty more surprises), the macro outlook’s dire. That genie’s not going back in the lantern.

“This is probably when you want to take advantage and nibble back on long vol, especially with vVol reset as the stagflationary bleed on lower growth and higher inflation continues to metastasize into the chronic pain of a recessionary selloff,” Nomura’s Charlie McElligott said Wednesday, while suggesting that challenging though this environment is, there may not be another “‘big bang’ vol-event.”

In the same note, he documented the dynamics playing out behind the proverbial curtain. “US equities index iVol — and most critically, vVol — are further compressing, as one-by-one, the acute left-tail scenarios [are] being repriced out of existence, and the distribution of potential outcomes narrowing in constructive fashion,” he said, describing a “monster VIX upside unwind” which potentially leaves the tape vulnerable to a “‘buyers are higher’ force-in phenomenon.”

However — and as mentioned here earlier this week — Charlie said that “with trailing realized vols where they are,” there’s still a de facto “lid on gross exposure.” In addition, the rally from the lows means the entry point for equities is “a lot less attractive from the long side now.” “There’s just a lot of extremely uncomfortable screen-watching going on,” he added.