President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary operates a hedge fund that reaped a massive windfall two years ago — even as global markets sagged.

Hedge fund executive Scott Bessent survived an internal squabble over the role of Treasury secretary, a key position that will face almost immediate deadlines and pressures.

When Donald Trump announced Friday that hedge fund manager Scott Bessent was his pick for Treasury secretary, there was a massive sigh of relief from the markets, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling sharply (a sign that investors think Bessent will help keep inflation cool) and the stock market getting a little bump.

With Scott Bessent, consumers eyeing prices and interest rates are getting a Treasury secretary pick who is deeply aware of the big-picture forces pushing and pulling those everyday costs, experts say.

Trump's nominee to run the Treasury faces a tall order—dealing with mounting debt, implementing an aggressive tariff regime, and navigating a thorny relationship with the Federal Reserve.

If confirmed, Bessent would runn the department that manages the nation's finances as well as its tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1992, Bessent helped Soros pull off the firm’s greatest trade: shorting the British pound. The British government was part of the European Union at the time, and its central bank—the Bank of England—had committed to keeping the value of the pound within a strict range alongside other European currencies,