The Maestro
Today, October 15, 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was interviewed by Sara Eisen at the CNBC 'Invest in America' Forum in Washington, D.C.
Eisen: Is one of the criteria to be the next Fed Chair, to want lower rates?
Bessent: One of the criteria is to have an open mind. Look, I just reread Bob Woodward’s book on Alan Greenspan called Maestro. Why was Alan Greenspan the Maestro? Because he had an open mind. Because the 90s- I just mentioned- I think that the most analogous period to what we’re seeing now is the 90’s. It would have been very easy for Alan Greenspan to kill the internet boom. Not be open to the idea that there is a productivity boom and slam on the break. Instead, he had a different view and let the economy believe that there could be substantial non-inflationary growth. Two of the criteria for me: 1. Do you have an open mind? What’s your theory of the case, why are we here? And then the other thing too [much rambling] there also needs to be a management level here.
Printing money lowers interest rates until it doesn’t. Scott Bessent just wants to recreate the Greenspan put and the dotcom bubble.[1][2]
Eisen: What is gold telling you? At record highs. Up more than 50% this year?
Bessent: There are more buyers than sellers? [Audience laugher] That for many years, gold mining went down. I don’t think its necessarily-
Eisen: You don’t think it’s some sign of anxiety or questions about reliability of the US dollar and US assets?
Bessent: I don’t know why everyone comes back to the dollar. We are the only G7 country- our 10 year rates are down 50 basis points. Everyone else’s are up. If you look at the Japanese rates, the percentage move is gigantic-
Eisen: But the dollar is down 10% this year.
Bessent: It is down 6.7. The good thing about being an historian- not an economist- that I rely on facts not theory.
The fact is, historically, the dollar is gold and silver. The Founding Fathers settled their historic treasury debt by paying off $100 worth of debt with $1 silver/gold in the Funding Act of 1790. Forget the 1990s. Here comes the 1790s![3]
