White House press access became the hottest asset in Washington this week, after Judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered the Trump administration to readmit CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The outlets are back on the grounds. Everyone is celebrating. I have seen this chart before.
Kelly is the same judge who restored Jim Acosta's access for CNN in 2018. Technicians call that a double bottom: a price hits the same floor twice, then bounces. Optimists see a recovery. I see an asset that has practised falling.
Look at the fundamentals. Access has been revoked, restored, revoked and restored again. That is not a market. That is a revolving door with a ticker symbol. Three outlets re-entering at once is a crowded trade, meaning too many people are betting the same way. Crowded trades end like 2008 ended, with everyone swearing the floor was solid until they found the basement.
"The North Lawn has never been more overvalued," a short-seller told me on Sunday, from behind a hedge he described as his position.
Let me be clear: this is a bubble. Press passes are trading purely on sentiment, and sentiment hangs by a lanyard.
