The International Monetary Fund is a D.C.-based organization comprised of 189 countries that was created by the U.N. in 1945. It was originally formed to build “a framework for economic cooperation to avoid a repetition” of some of the factors that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s; in 2012, it updated its mandate to include “all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that bear on global stability.” But according to White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, the I.M.F.’s sole purpose is to discredit the Trump administration and ensure that the G.O.P.’s tax-reform plan fails.

Responding to the fact that the I.M.F. did not include fiscal stimulus from said proposed tax plan in its forecast for U.S. growth, and its warning that cutting taxes on the wealthy could sabotage global economic growth, Mulvaney told the Financial Times that the organization is “heavily invested in it not working out.” Laying out the basis for his conspiracy theory, Mulvaney explained that “there are folks that are invested in seeing this fail because if it works then what is their argument for re-regulating? By the same token, if lowering taxes actually does lead to growth, what is their argument going to be for raising taxes in the future?” That’s sort of like the ne’er do well who gets all pissy with his friend for not investing in his idea for a company that takes all your old DVDs, and converts them to to VHS, moaning conspiratorially “Maybe you don’t want DVD-to-VHS to succeed!”

In a statement that almost seemed designed to further enrage Mulvaney, Vitor Gaspar, the I.M.F.’s head of fiscal affairs, told the F.T., “The idea that one would produce additional revenue by lowering tax rates is something that, being a conceptual possibility, is rarely documented empirically.” And, to really set him off: “We do not find systemic evidence that increasing tax progressivity”—i.e., raising taxes on the rich—“hurts growth.”

Elsewhere in members of the Trump administration seething over the I.M.F.’s skepticism of their wildly reviled plan, a Treasury official disputed the organization’s forecast Wednesday, telling reporters that the reforms are a work in progress. (Which is precisely why, according to Gaspar, the forecast did not include an impact from the proposed cuts; in order to make estimates, he explained, his organization needs these pesky things called details.) The official also claimed the argument that less-progressive tax rates would slow growth and generate inequality is untrue, and essentially said the I.M.F. should mind its own business.

At press time, no one from Team Trump had floated the possibility that the I.M.F. is a George Soros-funded plot to destroy any attempt to bring economic prosperity to America, but presumably every bone in their body was urging them to come out and say it.

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Surprise: Trump’s stock-market run isn’t as unprecedented as Trump thinks it is

Earlier today, Donald Trump spent some time on Twitter accidentally undermining the case for tax cuts, complaining that no one has given him credit for the stock market’s rally, and characterizing the market’s growth as “virtually unprecedented.” According to Bloomberg, though, that’s only accurate if we‘re putting heavy emphasis on the word “virtually.”

Wealth manager: run for your lives