On Tuesday afternoon, the White House lost its National Economic Council director, and America lost whatever remaining shred of hope it had for reasonable policy crafted by people who actually know what the hell they’re talking about. After 13 months of daily indignities, from working for a guy who openly defends Nazis to being forced to declare on TV that getting rid of the estate tax was all about farmers, Gary Cohn finally put his foot down and tendered his resignation. That he did so over tariffs on aluminum and steel, as opposed to, say, anti-Semitism, did not provide the best of optics—as a former Goldman Sachs partner put it to me, “He was basically saying ‘Nazis, Holocaust, fine. But fuck with my money, now you got my attention.’ If you’re going to resign in principle it would be nice if there was actually a principle there.“ But regardless of when and why he did it, the loss of Cohn has Wall Street terrified about what we can expect next. And, spoiler alert, they think it starts with an “s” and ends with a “tupid, ill-considered trade war launched by ideologues who could very well drive the economy off a cliff.”

“From a market perspective, it is hard to see Cohn’s departure in a positive light,” BlueBay Asset Management’s Timothy Ash told me. “This . . . likely means [the Trump administration] will move toward greater protectionism . . . and the conventional wisdom on trade protectionism . . . is that it does not work, is not even a zero sum game, but a lose-lose, with less global trade, and less global growth and prosperity as a result. And I think because of that the market [had] been relatively relaxed in response to Trump’s threats—they assumed that surely Trump could not be so shortsighted, or that the globalists would inevitably moderate the worst excesses of Trump. The market I think had been willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt and indeed trade on the second scenario.” But, Ash added, Trump’s actions over the past week suggest that he’s indeed serious about following through on his worst instincts, which Cohn will no longer be around to dial back.

One financial industry veteran I spoke to said there is good reason to worry “we’re all screwed.” Not because Cohn was actually that effective in his role running interference on people like Peter “Free trade causes spousal abuse” Navarro, who has encouraged Trump to rip up whatever trade agreements he can get his hands on. But because things were already so bad to start with. “Look, I thought it was an absolute disgrace that Gary joined the administration in the first place because I think the administration is a disgrace,” this person told me. “I think what Trump is doing is insane and sure, Gary might have been a voice of reason. But I’m only marginally more scared today than I was yesterday because I don’t think he actually ended up having that much influence. What has he done? We got the terrible tax plan, Trump quit T.P.P., who knows what’s going to happen with NAFTA—really, it’s all been going really well,“ he said, the sarcasm dripping thick like a bottle of Jergens self-tanner left out on a hot day.

The former Goldman Sachs partner, on the other hand, said Cohn’s departure has left him more worried about the state of the economy “by a factor of 10.” Gary, he said “was a formidable intellect. He believed in having the economy stable, and having him as a voice was good. If you look at the people they’re thinking of replacing him with, they don’t have the half to counter what’s going on there. There’s good reason to be scared,” the former partner added. “If you go back to Obama, if Larry Summers had quit, it would have been fine, you had good people at Treasury, there were adults in the room who went to class.” As for what we’re left with? “Steve Mnuchin is simply a sycophant. Wilbur Ross is only about self-interest. And Peter Navarro’s missing a few strings on his banjo.” (Incidentally, we were reminded today Navarro made his way to the White House after Jared Kushner basically googled “people who can find China on a map” and offered him the job.)