117: What Makes a Great Macro Fund Manager? Meet Scott Bessent, Trump's Treasury Secretary

Money Maze Podcast

Business, Investing, Management, News, Business News

4.8 • 216 Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s guest is the new US Treasury Secretary, serving under Donald Trump. The role gives him immense responsibility for managing US obligations and finances, including circa. $7 trillion of annual US federal spending, the $35+ trillion fiscal debt pile and continued inflationary pressures on both US businesses and consumers.

Prior to this he was a key player on the George Soros's team, who in 1992 helped the Quantum Fund make $1bn, shorting sterling ahead of the UK’s withdrawal from the ERM. As Soros’s CIO, he was also dubbed ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank of Japan’ by the Wall Street Journal after making approximately $3.5bn on the Abenomics trade from 2012-2015.

Scott is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s most highly respected macro hedge fund managers, and currently runs Key Square Capital Management. He has also taught financial history at Yale and is a prominent philanthropist.

In this episode, Scott explains the key ingredients in being a macro manager. He charts his journey, working with legendary investors such as Stan Druckenmiller and George Soros.

He opines on a range of key investment themes, including his thoughts on de-dollarisation, debt, commodities, the Ukraine rebuild, and AI. He also shares his analysis of the fast-evolving markets in both China and Japan.

Scott goes on to discuss risk, when and how he sizes positions, signposts that influence conviction, and dealing with information overload. A tour de force! Recorded in September 2023.

Sign up to our Newsletter | Follow us on LinkedIn | Watch us on YouTube

The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches, LiveTrade and IFM Investors.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I actually think investing is much more like cards or backgammon.
0:04.4	You don't know what the dealer is going to give you, or you don't know what the dice are going to give you.
0:09.5	Welcome to the Money Maze podcast.
0:11.9	I'm Simon Brewer, and Will Campion and I have created this show to explore and unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the investment business.
0:19.7	You can keep up to date by visiting Moneymayspodcast.com
0:22.9	and please sign up to our newsletter to ensure you won't miss a release.
0:27.4	If you enjoy this show, please subscribe and we'd love you to tell a friend or colleague about it.
0:32.3	Thank you for listening.
0:34.2	If you were a key player on the George Soros team that in 1992 helped the quantum fund make a billion dollars shorting the pound ahead of the UK's withdrawal from the ERM are acknowledged as a significant thinker, a highly respected macro hedge fund manager, have taught financial history as an adjunct professor of Yale and a recognized philanthropist, you might know
0:55.9	that our guest today is Scott Besson. Scott's firm, Key Square, has as his firm's mantra. We study history,
1:03.5	we observe the present and try to imagine the future. And that's what I hope we will do today.
1:09.5	So, Scott, you're over from the US. We're recording here in
1:12.1	London, and I have a list of macro market topics I'm itching to ask, and our listeners will be
1:17.5	reaching to hear. So welcome to the Money Mears podcast. Thanks, Simon. And I think our compliance
1:22.8	department wants to say this is all my opinion, not investment advice for your viewing, listening audience.
1:29.3	So I'm looking forward to this.
1:31.4	There's been a lot of press around Elon Musk's father's influence on his career, and you told
1:36.4	me that your father had one of the largest collections of science fiction books in your part of the
1:41.1	US, and used to sit and discuss them when you were a child,
1:47.6	so much so you said that you could point out the Alpha Centauri constellation before you knew where Chicago was.
1:50.9	How did that make you perceive the world?
1:54.0	Yeah, it was incredible.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -523 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Money Maze Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Money Maze Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.