logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2024
1h 2m

161: Who is Scott Bessent? Meet Trump's ...

Money Maze Podcast
About this episode
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, Scott was a globally respected and market-moving hedge fund investor. He was 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.

Then, as Soros’s CIO, he was also dubbed ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank of Japan’ by the Wall Street Journal, 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 is the Founder of 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!

Interview originally recorded in September 2023.

​​The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, IFM Investors, World Gold Council and LSEG.

Sign up to our Newsletter | Follow us on LinkedInWatch on YouTube
Up next
Nov 13
187: Investing & Philanthropy - With Sir Chris Hohn, Founder, TCI Fund Management & CIFF
In September we held our inaugural Money Maze Allocator Summit and over the two days there was fantastic discussion, debate, insights, disagreement and a lot of learning. It proved incredibly popular & much of that was a result of the quality of panels, moderators & topics. Of al ... Show More
49m 12s
Oct 30
186: Rare Earths, Energy, and the Green Agenda (Money Maze Allocator Summit 2025)
On 30th September and 1st October 2025 we held our inaugural Money Maze Allocator Summit (MMAS). We gathered 120+ global investors & allocators - many of whom have been previous guests - for 2 days of fascinating investment discussions. It proved incredibly popular & much of that ... Show More
52m 17s
Oct 16
185: RIT Capital Partners: Global, Unconstrained, Undervalued? A Conversation with Maggie Fanari (RIT CEO)
Founded in 1971 as the Rothschild Investment Trust, RIT Capital Partners PLC, continues today with a mandate to preserve and grow capital across generations through a multi-asset, global and unconstrained strategy. As one of the UK’s largest investment trusts, with total assets o ... Show More
41m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
907. News: The BBC attacks Revolut, banks behaving badly, and fintech makes the world a better place
Join hosts Laura Watkins and Dave Morris, along with some great guests, as we discuss the biggest fintech and financial services news this week. Topics covered include: A BBC investigation found that Revolut has been named in more fraud reports than any major UK bank; two differ ... Show More
1h 9m
Mar 2024
Bonus: Sam Bankman-Fried's multibillion dollar FTX fraud
A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast.Sam Bankman-Fried was the golden boy of cryptocurrency. He was dubbed the king and saviour of the industry. But this week he will be sentenced to possibly decades in prison for fraud and money laundering, and his firm, FTX, went bankr ... Show More
26m 39s
Jul 2024
693: Facts, Data, and Evidence: Knowing What to Trust or Can We Really Trust Evidence? (with Professor of Finance at London Business School, Alex Edmans)
Welcome to an interview with the author of May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases―And What We Can Do about It, Alex Edmans. In this book, renowned economist Alex Edmans teaches us how to separate fact from fiction. Using colorful examples, he hi ... Show More
49m 26s
May 2025
We Speak To Prof Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Laureate) On The UK/US Trade Deal…
As more details of the trade deal between the UK and United States emerge, we get a view from the Novel prize winning economist and author, Professor Joseph Stiglitz. He explains to Justin why the deal is a mistake for the UK, why China has a better strategy against President Tru ... Show More
22m 21s
Sep 1
After globalisation: What's next for a fractured world? With Neil Shearing
It’s a widely held assumption that US President Donald Trump has put globalisation into reverse. But Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics and author of The Fractured Age: How the Return of Geopolitics Will Splinter the Global Economy, tells the FT’s world tra ... Show More
31m 36s
Aug 2024
Season 3, Episode 10: Jean Dong, Chinese Statecraft in a Changing World
Please join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and China expert, Jean Dong as they discuss Dong’s fascinating book, Chinese Statecraft in a Changing World: Demystifying Enduring Traditions and Dynamic Constraints. Dr. Dong offers a rich and subtle historical perspective on China’s statecraf ... Show More
40m 34s
Sep 2024
Is the world facing a state of permacrisis?
Leading economists Mike Spence and Mohamed El-Erian talk about the “pretty complicated and disorienting environment” we face.  In this episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward thinking podcast, co-host Michael Chui talks with A. Michael Spence, dean emeritus of the Stan ... Show More
49m 24s
Jul 2025
ReThinking: The truth about the attention crisis with historian Daniel Immerwahr
<p>In the age of social media and short-form content, many people insist that our attention spans are getting shorter. But historian Daniel Immerwahr reminds us that people have cried wolf for centuries about technology hijacking our attention. In this episode, Adam and Daniel di ... Show More
35m 25s
Sep 29
From "How We Survive": The climate crisis is an economic crisis
Hey Smarties! Today we’re sharing a special bonus episode from “How We Survive.” It’s a conversation between host Amy Scott, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal and Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Elizabeth Kolbert. Together, they dig into how the climate crisis is triggering ec ... Show More
51m 13s
Jun 2024
The Changing World Order & the Power of Diversification — ft. Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio, founder of the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, joins the show to break down America’s place in a shifting world order. He discusses the mechanics of the U.S. deficit, and identifies an asset he’d go long on to hedge against economically uncerta ... Show More
46m 41s