Democrats are loud mouthed know-nothings who would set policies based on ignorance

BESSENT DISDAINS WARREN’S SCIOLISM

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/08/bessent-disdains-warrens-sciolism.php#google_vignette

Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a heavily footnoted nastygram that is accessible online here. Secretary Bessent responded in a letter that is accessible via X here. Secretary Bessent’s letter has been covered in the press — here in the New York Post, here at CNBC, and here at Bloomberg. 

The coverage is insufficient to the hilarity of the Warren/Bessent exchange. Ineed, I had missed it before reading Roger Kimball’s American Greatness column “Sciolistic and treadless.” Roger quotes the opening of Secretary Bessent’s letter:

I am in receipt of your August 13 letter, which unfortunately reveals that you know even less about foreign exchange markets than you do about banking. Terrifyingly, the opening paragraph is wrong about where the money came, what the transaction was, and whether there was even a borrower. What is equally shocking, but not surprising: not a single member of your media mob has a rudimentary-enough level of financial market literacy to spot your remedial error.

Treasury exchanged existing Exchange Stabilization Fund foreign-currency assets for yen. No new congressional appropriation was involved, and no credit was extended to Japan. Japan owes Treasury nothing. There is therefore no risk that Japan will fail to repay a debt that does not exist.

You state that it is “not clear” how preventing disorder in Japan benefits the United States. As your letter notes, Japan is a major holder of U.S. Treasuries. It is also a critical trading partner and a treaty ally. Disorderly yen markets can trigger forced unwinds, which could destabilize global markets and ultimately raise borrowing costs for American families and businesses. For a fuller explanation, I recommend any entry-level course in international finance for you and your staff, or I can give you a tutorial on Foreign Exchange for Dummies. 

DownloadInteractive Maps

Roger also quotes the expression of Secretary Bessent’s disdain for Warren’s “sciolistic” letter and pays tribute to Bill Buckley’s expansion of our vocabulary with the perfect word. 

Perhaps Secretary Bessent can follow up his tutorial on Foreign Exchange for Dummies with WFB for Dummies. Required reading would be the compilation Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations: A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnibus, edited by Linda Bridges and Roger Kimball himself.