Scott Bessent | All-In DC

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:00)
Okay, we are here in Washington, DC, in front of the White House. Having spent the afternoon with our friend David Sacks, our friend Elon Musk, and others, we are here to learn about the debt, the deficit, what's going on in DC, and we have an incredible interview lined up with Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary of the United States.

**David Friedberg** (0:19)
It was amazing.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:21)
And it's been an amazing afternoon, and we're really looking forward to it.

**David Friedberg** (0:23)
It was amazing.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:25)
Well, this is the pre, the intro to the video.

**David Friedberg** (0:27)
It will be amazing.
It's not the pre, it's just the post. We're going to pretend it's the pre.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:34)
It will be incredible.

**David Friedberg** (0:35)
It was incredible.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:37)
But how cool is the White House? And here's a bell. I'm pretty sure the bell...

**David Friedberg** (0:42)
I cannot even describe to you the day we had, running around. It's incredible.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:46)
Running around, room to room in the White House.

**David Friedberg** (0:48)
One of the best days of my life.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:49)
It was one of the best days of my life. It was incredible. I think this bell is probably pretty important. Can you guys get a shot of this bell? I don't know what it is, but it's really important.

**David Friedberg** (0:58)
The White House, the people, 201, super kind, super open, super curious. I mean, you felt it. You felt accepted.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:07)
Yeah, I felt accepted, but I got free soda. They have a soda machine where you can make any Coca-Cola flavor you want in the White House. It was pretty cool.

**David Friedberg** (1:14)
I took some hummus. I wrapped it on Friedberg's face and I punched him in the face.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:20)
It was a cool afternoon. And this is, what is this? The East Wing of the White House. And we took a walk from the West Wing all the way over to the East Wing.

**David Friedberg** (1:28)
Through the portico.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:29)
And then we snuck in, well, we didn't sneak in, we walked in. And then we're walking around the East Wing. We went to all of the private rooms. I got great photos. We'll slice them into this video. And then some Secret Service dude comes up and he's like, what are you doing here? This is the residence of the president. You have to get the f**k out. He's like, you need to go downstairs now. So we got to kick the f**k out. But it was an incredible, incredible tour. Super great. Yeah. Anyway, we're excited for this interview with Scott Bessent. I hope you enjoy it.
We are giving people ground truth data to underwrite your own opinion. What did you guys think? That was fun.

**David Friedberg** (2:12)
Well, today is a really important day. We're joined by the 79th Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent. This is an opportunity that we wanted to take as part of a longer form way.
Of explaining to people, not just how the economy works, but in a little bit more detail, where are we in this moment in time? Where are we with deficits, tariffs, the budget, economic, monetary, fiscal policy? How do we make sure that we all understand the plan to make America great again? So, Scott, thank you for joining us.

**Scott Bessent** (2:41)
Good. Thanks for having me.

**David Friedberg** (2:43)
I actually want to start with, let's go back in the way back machine. So, South Carolina, your father was a real estate developer. Tell us where the passion for finance came from.

**Scott Bessent** (2:58)
Well, I don't know where finance in particular came from. As you mentioned, my dad was a real estate developer, and he was boom-bust guy. So, I think that's where my passion for risk management came from. But I was very fortunate. Went to Yale, wasn't sure what I wanted to do. 1980, when I got there, probably you all can't imagine this, but there used to be these things called punch cards, and we were just going, the Yale computer system, we were just going from punch cards to screens. I was thinking of being a computer science major, maybe a journalist, because people actually used to read newspapers, so punch cards and newspapers from the way back machine. And I got an internship just for an individual, and he taught me the investment business really well. And I-

**David Friedberg** (3:56)
And who is that?

**Scott Bessent** (3:57)
His name is Jim Rogers, he's famous, he was George Soros' first partner. He had just completed an around-the-world motorcycle trip and written a book called Investment Biker. And fascinating guy.