Welcome to the latest installment of the American experiment, a project that has devolved from a grand Enlightenment dream into a low-budget custody battle between various branches of a decaying government. This week, we find ourselves squinting at the Federal Reserve, that hallowed mausoleum of fiscal obfuscation, where the walls are painted the color of a mild recession and the air is thick with the smell of printing presses and desperation. The current drama involves Donald J. Trump, a man whose understanding of economics is famously limited to the 'more is better' philosophy of a golden-toilet salesman, and his legal crusade to oust Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors. Naturally, the Supreme Court, our resident council of robed elders who treat the Constitution like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, is set to preside over this farce.

But wait, there is a twist—a 'cloud' of suspicion, as the media delicately puts it. The Department of Justice is currently poking around Jerome H. Powell, the man who looks like he was born in a Brooks Brothers catalog and whose primary job is to explain why your groceries cost twice as much while assuring the stock market that everything is fine. This inquiry into Powell has cast a shadow over Trump’s attempt to decapitate the Fed’s diversity hires. It is a classic Washington standoff: a former president who views the Fed as his personal piggy bank versus a current Fed Chair who views himself as the high priest of a religion that worships the 2% inflation target. To the casual observer, this might look like a battle for the soul of the economy. To anyone with a functioning frontal lobe, it is a slap-fight in a burning theater.

Lisa Cook’s case is the focal point, a challenge to her firing that rests on the shaky ground of executive overreach. Trump, in his typical fashion, wants to ensure that the Federal Reserve is staffed exclusively by people whose primary qualification is an ability to nod rhythmically while he speaks. The Left, meanwhile, treats Cook like a sacred icon of institutional progress, ignoring the fact that the Federal Reserve itself is an undemocratic cabal of technocrats who manipulate the value of your labor from behind a curtain of 'independence.' This independence is the greatest myth of the modern age. We are told the Fed must be free from politics so it can focus on the 'math.' In reality, the Fed is as political as a precinct captain in 1920s Chicago, except they trade in basis points instead of barrels of whiskey.

Then there is the Justice Department’s investigation into Powell. Imagine the scene: one group of government lawyers investigating another group of government bankers, while a third group of government judges decides if a fourth group of government politicians can fire the lot of them. It is a recursive loop of bureaucratic entropy. The DOJ’s interest in Powell is the perfect wrench in the gears. It allows the Supreme Court to do what it does best: delay, obfuscate, and eventually issue a ruling that satisfies no one while further cementing the idea that the law is merely a suggestion for the powerful. The irony of the DOJ investigating Powell for 'irregularities' while the entire system is built on the irregularity of fiat currency is a joke that apparently writes itself.

Historically, central banks were supposed to be the 'lender of last resort.' Today, they are the 'enablers of last resort,' propping up a debt-sodden empire while the citizenry bickers over who gets to sit in the big leather chairs. Trump’s obsession with Cook is petty, yes, but it’s the kind of pettiness that defines our era. He isn’t worried about the velocity of money; he’s worried about the velocity of his own ego. Conversely, the defense of Cook and Powell by the establishment isn’t about 'protecting the economy'—it’s about protecting the prestige of a guild that has failed to predict every major financial catastrophe of the last century. They aren’t protecting the dollar; they’re protecting their right to be wrong in private.

As the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in, we should prepare for the usual deluge of legal jargon designed to make this power struggle sound like a principled debate over Article II of the Constitution. It isn't. It is a territorial dispute between different factions of a ruling class that has forgotten who they are supposed to be serving. Whether Cook stays or goes, whether Powell is vindicated or vilified, the result remains the same for the average plebeian: you will continue to work harder for a currency that buys less, while the people at the top argue over which specific brand of incompetence should oversee your slow descent into insolvency. It is a grand, tedious spectacle, and we are all stuck in the front row without an exit strategy. The Fed’s independence is a ghost, Trump’s vengeance is a constant, and the Supreme Court is just the cleanup crew for a party that ended twenty years ago. Drink up, the bill is coming, and no one in D.C. has any intention of paying it.