For the Sake of Our Money, Scott Bessent Needs to Shut Up

Bessent hit Newsom back in a Politico interview. “Newsom was in over his hairdo,” he said, and has “a brain the size of a walnut,” and, most creatively, Newsom is “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken.”

This last insult was so elaborately crafted that it sent me to Google. Patrick Bateman is the serial killer in American Psycho; Sparkle Beach Ken is a Ken doll manufactured in 1995 that wears sparkly swimming trunks to go with Sparkle Beach Barbie’s sparkly bikini. It’s doubtful Bessent constructs such put-downs himself; more likely, he has someone on the payroll who writes them. Newsom’s press office next hit back at Bessent with a homophobic tweet that I won’t repeat here, for which Newsom should apologize. But I hardly call that a victory for Bessent, and it doesn’t make me feel any better about the dollar.

Perhaps we need a new economic indicator: the Bessent. It would track daily the number of gratuitously hostile things Bessent says. The more he shoots his mouth off, the more likely a recession or perhaps even global depression is imminent. I’m tempted to exclude Bessent’s threats to beat up people who deserve it, such as Elon Musk, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. But on reflection I won’t, because these weren’t a sign of terrific mental health either. The more Bessent makes himself sound like Kristi Noem or Kash Patel, the less confident I will feel about my stock holdings and my job security. Mr. Treasury Secretary, I beg you: Put a sock in it.