Losing Gary Cohn could crash the stock market, warns Yale professor By Shawn Landlois Social-Media Editor Published: Aug 17, 2017 2:53 p.m. ET
‘I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there is a lot of faith that he is going to help carry through the tax reform that people are looking for. I think if he steps away, it would crash the markets.’ Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
That’s the ominous warning Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld delivered to CNBC on Thursday morning, just as a triple-digit decline on the Dow industrials DJIA, -1.24% put the blue chips’ four-day win streak in jeopardy.
He was referring to White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, who, as a Jewish man, was reportedly “upset” and “disgusted” with the president’s weak response to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
According to CNBC, “a number of people” on Wall Street and at Cohn’s former firm Goldman Sachs have urged him to resign from the administration. If that were to happen, it would be a hit to Trump’s plans to overhaul the tax code, which some believe has been key to the stock market’s rally.
Before the latest developments, Cohn emerged from the pack and as the most-likely next chairman of the Federal Reserve, crushing the competition in a recent poll. Current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen was a distant second.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.