London, September 1992. A Yale-educated analyst in his late twenties at George Soros’s fund helps build a short position against the British pound that culminates in Black Wednesday, when sterling exits the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). The trade nets Soros more than $1 billion. That analyst was Scott Bessent. Thirty-four years later, he is Treasury Secretary of the United States, tasked with managing a government carrying roughly $39.91 trillion in debt as of August 12, 2026, on pace to exceed $50 trillion before 2030.
The Trader Who Saw Cracks
Bessent joined Soros Fund Management in 1991, after stints at a Saudi family’s investment arm, an internship with Jim Rogers, and work for short-seller James Chanos. A former…