Current treasury head is Scott Bessent, previously of Soros Fund Management and Key Square Group. He's far too qualified to be part of this administration. Expect him gone soon.
He's said on Fox Business today that on the basis of whatever agreements have been made in Alaska the US now considers the public and private holdings of its European allies + Japan to be part of an American sovereign wealth fund that can be expropriated whenever some cash is needed.
Either he's lying about that or he has guaranteed a position as Trump's number one favourite after Lighthizer.
I do not know why you are being downvoted as this is something I heard too and is quite serious.
> Other countries, in essence, are providing us with a sovereign wealth fund,” he told commentator Larry Kudlow, himself a top economic adviser in the first Trump term. “We have these agreements in place where the Japanese, the Koreans and to some extent the Europeans will invest in companies and industries that we direct them, largely at the president’s discretion.”
Yeah, but this is just nonsense, though. Like, this isn't how any of this works.
> the Europeans will invest in companies and industries that we direct them, largely at the president’s discretion.
The only significant general-purpose sovereign wealth funds in the EU are a French one worth 30bn and an Irish one worth $16bn. And the EU, which is the entity which makes trade deals, has no control over those. The EU has no significant money of its own (~200bn budget/year) and has no ability to control what member states spend their money on, and member states in general are uninterested in sovereign wealth funds, nevermind ones which invest specifically in American assets.
As far as I can see, what the 'deal' actually says is that private companies will invest an extra $600bn in the US by 2028, with the EU admitting it has no actual control over this, because of course it doesn't. But this is, y'know, not out of line with the level of FDI that you'd expect anyway, so really that bit of the trade deal boils down to _nothing_, an acknowledgement of what will probably happen in the normal course of events, a completely meaningless promise given for PR reasons.
In general, most of the non-tariff component of these ‘deals’ is of that form; stuff which the government obviously can’t control but which the private sector might reasonably be expected to do anyway.
Yeah, the core becomes the new periphery. Unless a significant rebellion in Europe, freight supply chain collapse or war with China happens, the existing payment infrastructure will eventually become colonial clearinghouses and governors-general will be appointed over the territories. If nothing interrupts it it'll probably take up to ten years for a full implementation of new policing structures.
Freedom-minded technology orgs like Wikimedia Foundation, Packet Clearing House, Internet Archive, ISOC, the EFF and the Free Software Foundation will not have anywhere to go to escape the net.
>public and private holdings of its European allies + Japan to be part of an American sovereign wealth fund
That's like striking a deal with a mr.Beast and consider the public and private holdings of YouTube part of your own net worth.
I mean I would love EU to be in such a position to be able to do such deals even if I don't support such a deal but that's not the case. Maybe Poland can send money I don't know but in Europe overall there's no other consolidated pro-USA power.
Maybe Bessent talks to provoke a reaction or induce something in their electoral base?
Besides the land and a return to the unjust peace Russia previously enjoyed it's obviously in the Kremlin's interest to have further relegitimation of the notion of spheres of influence and a hedge against China.
He's been in place since January so that suggests he's sticking about.
During that time he's been actively campaigning for policies that are questionable but highly aligned with this administration: BBB, crypto, interest rate cuts.
So qualified or not I can't see your prediction coming true.
Money men on the inside of this administration are only going to make money, why make waves even if it makes normal Americans poorer. That's been happening since Reagan.
> He's been in place since January so that suggests he's sticking about.
Since January there have been 4 Acting Commissioners of the IRS, then Billy Long was confirmed, but was kicked out after ~2 months, and now Scott Bessent (also Treasury Secretary) is Acting head:
> He's far too qualified to be part of this administration
Is he using his qualifications, though, or, for real, does he have any? I thought he'd be the sane and reasonable voice in this otherwise incompetent administration. But, he's just another yes-man.
Have you listened to his Senate hearing? He couldn't give any concrete response. Well, he wrote a wallstreet journal article to kiss T's as* and openly admire Tariffs and tax cuts to get his job. While earlier tax cuts and the big ugly bill collectively added $8T to the national debt.
