I have spent far too much time watching the necrotic tissues of the American government twitch in the light of public scrutiny, and yet, I am still occasionally surprised by the sheer, unadulterated gall of the people we allow to manage the decline of our currency. This week’s episode of ‘Washington is a Circus for the Intellectually Bankrupt’ features Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, and Jerome Powell, the man who treats the U.S. dollar like a high-stakes origami project. It is a story of optics, ego, and the kind of hypocrisy that would make a Machiavellian prince blush.

Let’s set the stage, though I warn you, the scenery is depressing. Scott Bessent recently took a break from whatever it is Treasury Secretaries do—presumably counting the crumbs of the middle class—to publicly scold Jerome Powell. The crime? Powell had the audacity to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The case in question involved the independence of the Federal Reserve, a concept as mythical as a politician who tells the truth. Bessent, adopting the tone of a disappointed headmaster, declared it a 'mistake' for Powell to be seen in those hallowed, marble halls. He suggested that Powell’s presence was a breach of decorum, a blurring of the lines between the executive, the legislative, and the whatever-the-hell-the-Fed-is.

Now, if this were the end of the story, we might simply dismiss it as a standard D.C. power play—one bureaucrat urinating on another’s fire hydrant to establish dominance. But the punchline, the absolute chef’s kiss of bureaucratic absurdity, is that Bessent himself was spotted at the Supreme Court not long ago. He wasn’t there to deliver a lecture on fiscal restraint; he was there for a case involving tariffs. In the warped, self-serving logic of the Treasury Department, it is perfectly acceptable for Bessent to spectate on judicial proceedings that align with his personal or professional interests, but when Powell does it, it is a catastrophic failure of judgment that threatens the very fabric of our institutions.

I find myself staring at this situation with the weary eyes of a man who has seen too many reruns. What we are witnessing is not a debate over constitutional propriety; it is a performative dance between two men who are both equally responsible for the slow-motion car crash that is the American economy. Bessent is a creature of the hedge fund world, a man who views the world through the cold, dead lens of profit margins and political leverage. Powell is the high priest of the printing press, a man whose primary function is to ensure that the bubble never pops on his watch. They are both cogs in a machine designed to transfer wealth upward while pretending to care about the 'independence' of the mechanisms they control.

Bessent’s critique of Powell is a masterclass in the 'Rules for Thee, But Not for Me' school of governance. He argues that the Fed Chair should remain a ghost, an invisible hand that only appears once a month to announce interest rate hikes that no one can afford. Yet, Bessent feels entitled to sit in the front row of a tariff case, presumably because he views himself as the protagonist in the grand narrative of American trade policy. It’s the kind of intellectual dishonesty that defines the current administration, and frankly, the one before it, and likely the one after it. The Left will pretend this is a matter of institutional integrity; the Right will claim it’s a necessary check on a rogue Fed. I am here to tell you that they are both full of it.

The idea of ‘Fed Independence’ is the greatest fairy tale ever told to the American public. The Fed is as independent as a puppet is from its strings. It exists to serve the interests of the banking sector and to provide a convenient scapegoat for the fiscal idiocy of Congress. When Bessent wags his finger at Powell for attending a court case, he isn’t protecting the Fed’s independence; he’s signaling to his base that he is the 'adult in the room' while simultaneously engaging in the exact same behavior he decries. It is a hall of mirrors where every reflection is uglier than the last.

I am tired of these people. I am tired of their tailored suits, their choreographed outrage, and their absolute refusal to acknowledge their own hypocrisy. Whether Powell sits in a courtroom or in his basement, the result is the same: the devaluation of your labor and the enrichment of his peers. Whether Bessent attends a tariff hearing or stays at home, the result is the same: a treasury managed by people who view the public as a resource to be mined rather than a constituency to be served. They are both spectating at the funeral of the American Dream, and they are arguing over who gets the better seat in the front row. It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetically predictable. We are being led by men who believe that as long as they follow the 'rules' of decorum—or at least pretend to—we won't notice that they are burning the house down for the insurance money.