I have spoken with the King this morning...

Two politically-significant endings this morning. First, of course, is that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has resigned, though he plans to stay on until a new Labour Party leader is chosen:

Keir Starmer has announced he will stand down as prime minister after days of intense pressure from Labour MPs, paving the way for Andy Burnham to take over at Downing Street.

Less than two years after a historic election victory, Starmer had faced calls from his MPs, including privately from cabinet ministers, to set out a timeline for his departure, with many of them unnerved by the threat from Nigel Farage’s party before the next general election.

Starmer’s decision to announce his departure kickstarted the process to become the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years.

Burnham confirmed he would run for the Labour leadership, saying an “orderly and responsible” transition of power would ensure “stability, seriousness and a continued focus” on the issues that mattered most to the country.

Within minutes of Burnham’s statement, Wes Streeting – the politician most likely to have run against the former mayor of Greater Manchester – announced he was instead throwing his weight behind Burnham, making a coronation highly likely despite the misgivings of some MPs.

There's a lot going on here. The main takeaway is that in the 10 years (tomorrow!) since the UK voted to leave the EU, the country has become almost ungovernable, in part because the stupid people who voted to leave the EU are too stupid to understand how that broke their economy.

Speaking of ideology making people stupid, last night former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan died. His Ayn Rand-addled philosophy of letting the markets sort it out led to catastrophic inaction in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. We are still living with his legacy, even as he, like most of the gerontocratic class, is not.

I may have more thoughts on both these stories later.