Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: I'm Kaylee Lines alongside Joe Matthew. We have gotten confirmation
Speaker 2: of what Bloomberg had already reported. The President elect Donald
Speaker 2: Trump is nominating Scott besson of Key Square Group to
Speaker 2: be the Secretary of the Treasury. Donald Trump in his
Speaker 2: statement posted on True Social describing him as someone who
Speaker 2: has long been a strong advocate of the America First agenda.
Speaker 3: Joe, we actually spent some time with the sixty two
Speaker 3: year old Scott Bessett right here at this table in Washington,
Speaker 3: d C. Kaylee, not that long ago when it was
Speaker 3: still unclear who was going to win the election, and
Speaker 3: of course since then we've heard any number of names
Speaker 3: bandied about. Scott Bessett has always been on the shortlist.
Speaker 3: We spent some time talking about his relationship with Donald
Speaker 3: Trump and what Donald Trump's relationship with the Federal Reserve
Speaker 3: will be.
Speaker 1: Let's listen, here's a deep understanding of financial markets as
Speaker 1: opposed to most politicians. He wants to be involved in
Speaker 1: the conversation. He has very well formed opinions, is a
Speaker 1: lot of private sector friends, so he just wants to
Speaker 1: be a voice.
Speaker 3: Just part of our conversation that touched on a lot
Speaker 3: of themes Kayley. One thing that Scott Bessont was able
Speaker 3: to do was to convince the markets, to convince the
Speaker 3: news media that this idea of combining tariffs and tax
Speaker 3: cuts could result in meaningful growth. This is an idea
Speaker 3: that has had many from the economists to market watchers
Speaker 3: here in Washington suggests that it could bring great deficits
Speaker 3: to Washington d C. Scott Besson has been very effective
Speaker 3: and arguing against that idea to the point where Donald
Speaker 3: Trump thought he was the messenger for this job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's going to remain to be seen to
Speaker 2: what extent it is Scott Besson's voice in the role
Speaker 2: of Treasury Secretary, if he is indeed confirmed for it,
Speaker 2: that will be the most defining or authorative on economic policy.
Speaker 2: Keeping in mind here that someone else who was in
Speaker 2: contention for this position, Howard Lutnik, has been named to
Speaker 2: be Secretary of Commerce, with according to the President elect,
Speaker 2: jurisdiction over trade and tariffs specifically, so how these departments
Speaker 2: will be working together in order to make Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: campaign agenda and actual reality is something we'll be watching
Speaker 2: here as well as those who will have yet to
Speaker 2: be named two top economic positions, including on the National
Speaker 2: Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisors. In part,
Speaker 2: in the statement Donald Trump has just put out on
Speaker 2: True Social he has described that Besson's role will be
Speaker 2: about putting the US fully in a position of the
Speaker 2: world's leading economy and the center of innovation in entrepreneur
Speaker 2: He goes on to say that America will have the
Speaker 2: greatest economic boom, and the great people of the United
Speaker 2: States of America essentially will be benefiting from Scott Besson's
Speaker 2: Treasury secretary.
Speaker 3: Well ensure that no Americans will be left behind the
Speaker 3: next and greatest economic boom. Glowing comments as you would
Speaker 3: expect from the President elect here talking about somebody, by
Speaker 3: the way, who is a They've spent a lot of
Speaker 3: time together talking about economic philosophy. Scott Bessont worked throughout
Speaker 3: the course of this campaign as an economic advisor to
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, and in fact helped to craft some of
Speaker 3: the speeches that were directed most specifically at the economy.
Speaker 3: Assuming that he has confirmed Kayley, we should also note
Speaker 3: the fact that he would be the first openly gay
Speaker 3: Treasury secretary in American history. As the seventy ninth secretary
Speaker 3: of the US Treasury.
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly historical, historically significant. And as you talk about
Speaker 2: this notion of friendship and having the ear of the
Speaker 2: president elect, someone else who does, as we've come to understand,
Speaker 2: is Elon Musk, who, actually, if we all recall, just
Speaker 2: days ago, wade in on the jockeying for Treasury and
Speaker 2: described Bessant as a business as usual choice. He was
Speaker 2: advocating for Howard Lutnik, but he said business as usual
Speaker 2: is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way
Speaker 2: or another. Clearly, Donald Trump has not sided with Elon
Speaker 2: Musk on this, as he is named Bessett now to
Speaker 2: be a Treasury secretary. But I wonder if business as
Speaker 2: usual is actually what financial markets will have been looking for.
Speaker 2: And we'll have to wait and see the reaction to
Speaker 2: this pick when futures open on Sunday Eason, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: We have to wait till six pm on Sunday. Now,
Speaker 3: interesting timing how this all dropped. The markets will have
Speaker 3: the weekend to decipher this. We have seen, by the way,
Speaker 3: a bit of a drop in bitcoin, which is the
Speaker 3: one thing that we can kind of factor in. We
Speaker 3: talked a lot about though, the impact that immigration or
Speaker 3: the relationship that immigration has with our job market, and
Speaker 3: the impact that a mass deportation might have. Here's what
Speaker 3: Scott Besson had to say about it.
Speaker 1: In this cycle, when we had the massive inflation we get,
Speaker 1: whether it's eleven million new arrivals or as President Trump thinks,
Speaker 1: twenty one million new arrivals, it does push down wages
Speaker 1: on the bottom quintile, which I think is abominable. These
Speaker 1: are working people Americans who are seeing their wages get
Speaker 1: pushed down.
Speaker 2: But of course, as we consider the prospect of mass
Speaker 2: deportation of a lot of the economic policies, including around
Speaker 2: taxes that Donald Trump has talked about, it is not
Speaker 2: going to be entirely up to individuals like the President
Speaker 2: or the Secretary of the Treasury to actually enact those policy.
Speaker 2: There has to be a relationship here with Congress, who
Speaker 2: has authority over a lot of these monetary matters. So
Speaker 2: the relationship that Vessett will have on Capitol Hill is
Speaker 2: something to watch. In fact, most immediately his ability to
Speaker 2: get confirmed by those on a Capitol Hill in the
Speaker 2: US sense.
Speaker 3: That's right, and after some of the other more controversial
Speaker 3: names that we've been talking about. This is not considered
Speaker 3: to be a very heavy lift for the transition team
Speaker 3: in achieving this confirmation. We'll have a long way to
Speaker 3: go here talking about this and the relationship that the
Speaker 3: Treasury will have with the Commerce Department suddenly now overseeing
Speaker 3: the US Trade Representative when it comes to tariffs. This
Speaker 3: is going to be an interesting combination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that reminds us that we still have yet
Speaker 2: to learn who the next US Trade Representative will be,
Speaker 2: who will lead the National Economic Council, have those roles
Speaker 2: inside the White House that also could be formative in
Speaker 2: the actual defining of policy and the implementation of it.
Speaker 2: But this was a large selection for a president elect
Speaker 2: who campaigned almost entirely on the issue of the economy.
Speaker 2: We knew he was taking the role of Treasury Secretary
Speaker 2: very seriously. He took his time in making this decision.
Speaker 2: But now we've understood and we've learned that it is
Speaker 2: Scott Bessant who ultimately gets the nomination.
Speaker 3: Interviews at mar A Lago on Wednesday with Bessint with
Speaker 3: Warsh with Rowan clearly with three boxes to check, Maga
Speaker 3: Wall Street and ready for TV. Donald Trump has made
Speaker 3: his pick Scott Bessett, now officially the nominee for Treasury
Speaker 3: Department