What Scott Bessent's appointment means for the Trump administration

The President-elect's nominee for Treasury secretary faces a grueling job.

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At last, white smoke has emerged from Mar-a-Lago. Two-and-a-half weeks after the election and more than a week since it first seemed as if an announcement about a choice of Treasury secretary was coming, Donald Trump has finally made his decision.

On Nov 22, the campaign said Mr Scott Bessent, a hedge fund titan, would command 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both the appointment of Mr Bessent, and the manner in which he was picked, offer clues about economic policy during a second Trump term.

The President-elect has made a sensible choice. Mr Bessent is a sharp observer of markets and has a deep grasp of macroeconomics, which has earned him respect on Wall Street.

In 1992, as a young portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management, he tipped off Mr Stanley Druckenmiller, a partner at the firm, that the Bank of England would probably be unwilling to defend the pound, as the British economy was struggling. Mr Druckenmiller and Mr George Soros went on to make one of the most famous and successful hedge fund trades of all time: They bet against sterling and "broke the Bank of England", making US$1 billion in the process. When Mr Bessent set out to run his own fund in 2015, he did so with a US$2 billion investment from Mr Soros.