I don’t always believe politicians, when they promise that everything is going to be great when they get elected.
But Scott Bessent isn’t a politician, exactly. He’s, like, a hedge fund manager at the Key Square Group. And now, he’s the nominee to run the U.S. Treasury for the next four years. I assume that’s a full-time job? But I don’t really know much about the federal how government works. Maybe it’s more like a hobby.
I first heard about Scott Bessent when I was learning about tariffs.
We’re going to have lots of tariffs, I hear, on the imported products we buy. For the next four years? The stuff coming from Mexico and Canada is going to be more expensive. And the stuff from China, maybe even more expensive.
Which is going to be great for our economy. Especially, great for working folks like me. Or so they say.
I listened to an interview with Scott Bessent, on the Larry Kudlow show. Mr. Bessent isn’t actually our Treasury Secretary yet — I guess he has to be approved by the Senate? But he’s already doing interviews and explaining how great things are going to be, for the next four years.
After listening to the interview, I feel like Mr. Bessent and I are like two peas in a pod, except that he went to Yale and I have a high school diploma.
But I think — now that we’re on a friendly basis — I can call him “Scott” and he won’t mind.
I thought this was an interesting comment by Scott:
“Tariffs can’t be inflationary because if the price of one thing goes up, unless you give people more money, then they have less money to spend on the other thing, so there is no inflation.”
This is so true. When the price of coffee goes up, then I have less money to spend on socks. So there will be no inflation. I will just wear my shoes without any socks. And if the price of socks goes up, I can drink warm water instead of coffee, which is probably better for my chronic insomnia.
Economists who think they know more than Scott have issued dire warnings that the tariffs the Trump administration has proposed — 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico, and even more on certain other countries — will cause inflation and job losses.
But Scott says, tariffs are a good thing, and we don’t need to worry. So I’m not going to worry.
The Democrats can worry for me, if they want.
They can worry, for example, about the BRICS currency scam. Some big countries — at least, ‘big-talking’ countries — have been meeting to discuss a new global currency to replace the U.S. dollar. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS. Big, big-talking countries.
Plus Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Smaller big-talking countries.
President-elect Donald Trump told them a thing or two.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” he wrote on social media last Saturday.
“We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency nor back any other currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or they will face 100% tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. economy.
“They can go find another sucker.”
Where they would find another sucker is not immediately clear.
But I doubt they want 100% tariffs imposed on them by Donald and Scott. Even a 100% tariff would not cause inflation, because, you know, coffee and socks. You can’t have both.