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Aage in every week we provide in depth research and data on some of the two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries are analysts cover worldwide.
Today we'll look at al Paramount buying the rights to UFC fights will impact it's streaming service.
Well, it's a look at earnings from the networking bell Weather Cisco Systems.
First, we look at third quarter earnings from the farm at machinery leader Deer.
This week, Deer reported earnings that beat analyst projections, but the company trimmed its projected net income for twenty twenty five. This comes as customers were made cautious due to trade uncertainty and the health of the US economy.
For more, Lisa and I were joined by Chris Chielino, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior US machinery analyst. We first asked Christopher's key takeaways from Deer earnings.
Listen, I mean, this really wasn't a particularly great quarter. Three key results were mixed at best. It was really a low quality earnings beat, primarily driven by a lower tax rate. And as you alluded to, they did cut their twenty to twenty five guidance, But to be honest, I don't think that really changes the investment thesis here. You know, we still expect earnings to bottom this year. We're still looking at a very you know, gradual recovery
as twenty twenty six unfolds. The reduction in the outlook was really driven by weakness in their construction business, and it appears to us that it was really more of a function of some of the higher tariffs and costs coming through. We knew that construction forestry was really going to bear the brunt of the tariff impact, but this court just came in, you know, a little bit more
of a headwind that we anticipated. It doesn't appear to be that there's been much of a change in terms of you know, farm fundamentals and their appetite to go out and buy equipment.
Hey, Qrich, can you get more into the struggle that farmers are facing that that's impacting deer.
Sure, you know, we've been in this kind of prolonged downturn in the ag ecotomy. Crop prices continued to deteriorate, farm fundamentals remain weak, interest rates remain high. We have the you know, the overhanger, the uncertainty around the trade environment and export market access. Really there's really no signs or i would, you know, say green shoots yet that
we're at this inflection point. I think the positive takeaway is that, you know, inventories are coming down, deer's not going to have to massively underproduce a retail demand next year. So even if we're looking at a flatish type of environment in terms of underlying retail demand. We're still looking at probably higher production and some pricing coming through, which should still generate some operating leverage in the business.
So, Chris, when demand is down for their core farm equipment, what does deer typically do? Do they let inventories build? Do they get promotional to move inventory out the door? How did they usually manage that?
Yeah, so this is it's a delicate balancing act, right. I mean, it's almost impossible to time the cycle. And what they've been doing, you know, for the better part of this year, and even at the end of last year, they had been underproducing retail demand to bring down those elevated inventories. They've done really a commendable job on new equipment. The big issue right now is still on the used equipment inventory side, particularly on tractors, which are still quite elevated.
And you're right, they are allocating more merchandising programs and pool funds to help address that issue and move the equipment. And I think you see that partly reflected in their production precision ad business this quarter and pricing actually flip negative, which was a surprise to us. It does appear that this is you know, relatively transitory. We should expect pricing to bounce back next quarter. But yeah, it's been a you know, they've done a real good job of managing inventories.
It's just you know, when you're slogging along through the bottom of the cycle here, it does become quite challenging.
So then I got to follo up, are you still cautious about the pace of their recovery?
Yes, you know, I would say signs of a recovery are still you know, pretty elusive to us. And if you just look over the last couple of months, you know, you continue to see further downward pressure on crop prices, which at the end of the day is one of the bigger drivers of deer's business and farmer cash receipts.
We had a pretty ugly WASDI report this week. You know, it looks like we're going to get another year of record corn production, so those stockpiles continue to build, which is really going to keep a you know, somewhat of a stealing on crop prices here in the near term. So we think this recovery is going to look much more modest or subdued than what we typically see during a normal cycle. Right now, we're still anticipating you know,
a modest you know, flat to up five percent. Next here in terms of underlying retail demand for lar Jack, particularly in North America.
All right, thanks to Chris Chielino, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior US machinery analyst.
We moved next to a conversation about the global fintech company ny X. NYAX trades on the NASDAC under the ticker NYAX.
The company is focused on payment software and devices for the self service space where no cashier is present, and the company recently reported second quarter profit that more than doubled analyst expectations.
This week, guest host Normal Lind and I were joined by nyak's chief financial officer, Segit Manure, and we began the conversation by asking Segite for more background on what NIAX does.
So we are actually the global leader in payment and management solution for the unattended market. And what does it mean unattended? It's really the vending machine massals chair ev chargers when it's just you in front of the machine, does not cashier in between. And in fact, if you bought a drink in a vending machine lately at the JFKA, you probably used one of our Nayaks Yellow devices. So
we have more than hundred thousand customers. We sell our product in more than one hundred and twenty countries, and we have a very simple mission statement to.
Help our customers grow the business. What does it mean?
Increase their revenue, decrease their cost and through loyalty, create that stickness with our customers with their customers.
How do you stay ahead in today's fintech landscape? Of course there's a lot of players now.
So actually in our area there's not a lot of competition. I'm talking about the payment and in the unattended space. So in fact, you know, we are the only global, as I said, a player in this unattended space. It's a very fragmented business and decentralized, so there's a lot of small players and we are with our global solution basically integrated hardware, payment and services all together, we can
bring that to the local market. It's also a very highly regulated market, so there's a lot of barriers to entry, so whether it's a regulation on payment, whether it's privacy, and with our global solution, with us being there for twenty years, we were able to overcome that. We look at ourselves as a payment company, and what do you need as a payment company?
You need basically three things.
You need the trust, you need the scalability, and you really need the easy doing business. So from a trust perspective, we build that trust over the twenty years. We have a very strong brand. Look now for the yellow devices. You would see that everywhere from an easy to do business with it's again it's a bit to B to see. So we have a very you know, it's a high profile company. You go to whether it's the cow wash
to the vending machine and you see us. So B to B it's all about regulation and we were able to overcome that. When it comes to B to see, as I said, it's in front of us and you want that in a nanosecond to get your snack, to get your coffee. So on scalability, this is where we are focusing right. This is what takes time to build. And we've showed that we are using more than eighty distributors all around the world right, so we are setying
our products straight to the OEM. So when the vending machine, the massage share, the kid ride are coming from the manufacturers, it will already bring that NIX device.
Talk to us about the EV business electric vehicle business. How are you guys approaching that? What is your expectation for how that business will grow for you?
So great question.
EV is definitely one of the three main growth drivers as we look into twenty twenty five and even beyond.
There was a few elements there.
It can be as easy as any unattended verticals that we're already in and we're already working with the ivy Goo Electrified America Electrifi Canada where we are providing the payment device, but it can.
Also be where we are developed.
The management suite, the electricity management suite that has a lot of regulations around it, and we were able to accommodate that as well. And then for small businesses which I haven't mentioned that, but most of our customers.
Are small and small and medium businesses.
That's where we provide the old solution, the hard well, the management electricity basically as well as payment. So iv we just signed announced the agreement with Hotel which is a potential of one hundred thousand ivy charging stations to be deployed in North America and also in Europe and
many other contracts like that. That shows the potential with the fact that we are a global company, so it can be done in France or in the state of California and you have the same exact product all around the globe.
Are there any particular market gaps or audiences that are underserved that you're targeting right now?
So in the unattended space, which is the majority of our revenue today, definitely there's a place on the EV to grow and the electric vehicle charges, smart coolers is a very fast growing area parking as well micro market, So this is in the unattended, but we also are stepping in into more of areas, like as I said, the EV charger, that is beyond the payment or even
the retail. What we've learned over the twenty years that we're doing business business with small businesses is that they're still in the attendant, inside the store, inside the whatever it is that you're selling does not a good product for those small businesses, and we are extending that into other countries as well.
Our thanks to Nayak's chief financial officer, Sagit Manor coming up a look at where we are with robotaxis in the US and the rest of the world.
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing in depth research and data on two thousand companies and one hundred and thirty industries.
You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via Bigo on the terminal. I'm Lisa Matteo and.
I'm Paul Sweeney.
This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence with Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
I'm Paul Sweeney and I'm Lisa Matteo filling in on Bloomberg Intelligence.
We move next to some news in the media and entertainment space.
This week we heard that Paramount has acquired the exclusive rights to show all events from the Ultimate Fighting Chain Championship in the US over the next seven years. It's a seven point seven billion dollar deal designed to boost Paramount plus streaming service for more.
Lisa and I were joined by Getha Ranganath and Bloomberg Intelligence. Analysts on US media were first to ask Etha if the UFC can be considered a good deal for Paramount.
No one saw this coming. I mean, the Paramount Skuydiance transaction just closed last week August seventh, and we were still kind of waiting for some inkling of what the go to strategy or the go forward strategy would be from you know, David Ellison's team. And here you go with the bank, you know, paying almost eight billion dollars for UFC rights. Now they are premier sports rights, so they're definitely making a big statement here. Yes, you're absolutely right.
UFC has over one hundred million fans in the United States. Their current deal is with ESPN. They were getting paid about five hundred million a year, so this is you know, more than one hundred and twenty percent search so it is definitely a pretty penny And what Paramount is hoping is that this really gets them onto the sports so
makes them a must have platform. And we're talking here about Paramount Plus, which is their streaming platform, which is known for really some great scripted content and some sports. But this is really a big way for them to kind of make a statement, make a really bold splash on the sports streaming stage.
All right, KEITHA, I'm trying to take this in stride because my husband is a big UFC fan, so he watches it on ESPN. So does this mean that I have to get Paramount Plus on time? Don't tell me.
That, GIP.
Sorry, Lisa, Yes, you do because everything all of the UFC contents. So you know, what we'd initially thought was that UFC was kind of going to split this packages. You know, they have the Fight Night, which is the weekly bi weekly kind of you know matchups that you see, and then they have their big Marquee events, which are the numbered events with you know, the likes of O'Connor McGregor all these other big superstar players and you got to pay out of your pocket for that pay per view.
They're actually now making all of that content, both the market events as well as the Fight Nights, all available to Paramount Plus subscribers, so there's no pay per view anymore. But yeah, unfortunately your husband's going to have to subscribe to Paramount Plus.
Well, this is what I think you do. Every streamer you put on, you have to take one off, go to the family. Okay, we're putting on Paramount Plus.
What are you giving back?
What are we giving back?
Yeah, exactly that's how you do it. Thank you, Gaitha.
What is realistically the buld case for Paramount sky Dance Corporation.
Yes, I think you know, we we really need of course, you know, this kind of tells us that They're definitely going to keep the streaming platforms. See some of the some of the concerns Paul before, you know, before the deal actually closed, was what is sky Dance really interested in? So they don't really have any expertise in running TV assets. All that they really cared about was the Paramount Studio because you know, sky Dance is a big studio and
they were really really interested in the studio assets. So we really didn't have any direction in terms of what they were going to do with the cable networks. Viacom has a bunch of those. You have the CBS broadcast network, you have the Paramount Plus streaming platform. What this deal signals is they're definitely interested in the streaming platform and the CBS broadcast network because you know, they did say that they're going to simulcast some of those UFC games
on the CBS broadcast networks. I think that is going to be a core part of their portfolio. What we're still not clear about is what they're going to do with some of the cable networks. So you know, whether it's a BET or an MTV or a Comedy Central, we really don't know what the strategy is there. Chances are they might look to monetize those assets, you know, sell them. But really I think the big play for a paramount is going to come down to make these
bigger and bigger investments. If they really want to be a credible you know, streamer, they have to obviously go after these big deals, which is exactly what they did with the UFC. We'll have to wait and watch and see exactly what their aspirations are, but it depends if they're if they're willing to kind of make these big investments, they could become you know, arguably one of the top three or one of the top four platforms.
Our Thanks to Geitha Ranganath and Bloomberg Intelligence analyst on US.
Media, we've moved next to an M and A deal in the apparel space.
This week, we heard that the Canadian clothing company Guilden Activewear agreed to buy the US underwear maker Haines Brand for about two point two billion dollars in cash and stock. Gilden is aiming to double its annual sales with the transaction.
For more guest host Normal Lind and I were joined by Abigail guildbartin Bloomberg Intelligence Footwear and ath leisure analyst. We first asked Abbaga able to discuss who Guilden is and why they're buying an underwear company.
I think a lot of people probably own Guilden and don't know it right because it's really a basic apparel manufacturer. So they create the T shirts that then they sell to your favorite sports teams or to Walmart, and then they put the logos on it. So they're heavily in the printware space. They do have exposure to innerwear, which is what Haines is, Haynes' is, you know, the basics underwears, bras teas, and they used to be in activewear till
they spun off Champion, so they're very complimentary. Yes, they spent off Champion about a year.
Okay, interesting and I definitely remember Gilden. As you mentioned, when you just start to look into the tags of your T shirts, you'll start to see the name pop up there. But I mean, what's the latest with consolidation more broadly in your industry. I know you have a lot of names that you cover that are doing a lot of mergers.
Yeah, definitely, I think you know it comes out of time with tariffs and costs looming as well as I mean for this acquisition, I think it's been considered for a while as actually there was a whole proxy battle about it a few years ago where they actually ousted the CEO over it, and then he has returned since then and they completely changed the board over So this
didn't come completely out of nowhere. But I think it makes a lot of sense just in terms of, you know, Gilden's building out their whole manufacturing footprint and it's once again really complimentary. They already kind of make everything that Haines does, but on a larger scale at a lower cost.
And Haines Brand's based in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Yeah, I'm sure Sarah talk to us about you mentioned the tariffs. How is it impacting your world, because I would think that would be immediate.
Yes, so it definitely is impacting my world with you know, the footwear brands, but for Guilden and Haines. Actually, Guilden is one of the largest users of US cotton, so yes, they are probably one of the largest ones, and so that is actually going to help them not have to deal with as many tariff costs just since products are made with US cotton, so they're subject to a lower teriff rate, so that's actually something that they can benefit from. They also are less exposed to Asia and more in
Central America as well as Haynes Brands. Their manufacturing footprints are very complementary and overlap, so they'll be able to kind of mitigate that pretty well. But for Haines Brands, its Guilden gives them a much more financial stability and opportunity.
For that our thanks to Abigail gil Martin Bloomberg Intelligence, Footwear and at the Leisure Analyst.
Each week we look at research from Bloomberg and EF previously known as New Energy Finance.
They're the team at Bloomberg that tracks and analyzes the energy transition from commodities to transport, industries, buildings, and agriculture sectors.
This week we look at the autonomous vehicles robotaxis. Guest host Normal Linden and I were joined by Andrew Grant be n EF, head of Intelligent Mobility.
He discussed what's happening in the robotaxi space and some of the hot battlegrounds for developers.
I began by asking Andrew where we are with robotaxis in the US. And the rest of the world.
Wouldn't it be a great way to have a way to measure the progress that we have on the robotaxi side and the self driving vehicle side. Sometimes it could be quite difficult to monitor the sector, and there's a lot of promises made and there's a lot happening in the kind of AI black box, and what we try to do is measure things that you can actually see
and count. So we've been looking at some real operational statistics that have been coming out from some of the robotaxi companies and coming up with a way to grade how serious an operation is. Can are these projects actually operating on public roads? Are they offering their rides to the general public or do you need to be on a selective weight lift? Are they putting their money where their mouths are and charging a fee for the service?
Do they actually have a safety driver in the vehicle or human still supervising in the vehicle or have they pulled that? And are they able to operate in all weather conditions twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And if they kind of score five out of five in our grade, that's a fully functional operational robotaxi service. We counted out eight of those operating different cities around around the world, I should say around the world. At the moment, it's just China in the US.
Okay, so we're seeing China in the US as the two leaders here.
Yeah, at the moment we have of four companies that have met those grades. We do have another sixteen projects that are kind of four out of five on our ranking metric there. I should mention that Tesla just gets too. But a lot of these companies are looking to expand outside their home markets, certainly expanding to places like Singapore and Middle East and UAE, and then of course Europe, which at the moment there's regulations that are kind of
previncing a wider spread rollout of robotaxis. But a lot of these companies are targeting twenty twenty six for deployment across a number of European cities.
So who are the leaders here at this early stage.
I mean, really, you're talking about Weimer with the most projects that meet out grading of fully operational robotaxi services. But from the Chinese automakers, the China robotaxi developer side, you're also talking about by do we ride ponyai that are scoring highly on these metrics and looking to expand.
What are some of the regulatory hurdles here? Are there any areas, in particular in the United States where it's a bit more open season.
It's a very complex regulatory environment at the moment because you can kind of have these national federal level ambitions, but really it comes down to not just even state level, but down to city level, where you need to work really closely with a lot of these regulators to deploy
these services in a tightly geffinced environment. So you need to be actively if you're a robotaxy developer, you need to be actively talking to a lot of these regulators and helping them understand what you're trying to do and how you're trying to complement what they want to do on the public transport side or on they transport infrastructure side to make this work and make it a valuable project for both for both entities. So I always describe
the regulatory environment it's very iterative. You kind of need to take one box, proved to your regulators how you're doing, and then continue to grow that relationship and kind of build the regulations with them, and a lot of knowledge exchange needs to happen as you progress.
Yeah, I'm just looking at yourself driving vehicle tractor at wwwwna dot com. Have to be a Bloomberg terminal user, I believe, yes, but very very cool. It's an interactive kind of model showing you where around the world. So what are the gating issues here? Andrew? It's for fuller and fuller deployment going out over the next several years. Is it regulatory? Is it technology? Is it capital? What are the key drivers for just I guess adoption over the next seple years.
I mean, we talk a lot about the technology and the regulatory side, and both need to improve, and I think both will. What's probably doesn't get enough attention, and we're starting to see a lot more focus on that. At the moment. Is just the value chain really starting to take shape. Building a car, building the software and the related hardware that goes into powering a self driving vehicle,
matching the vehicle with users owning the vehicle. These are all things that have different skill sets from a company perspective. They have different capital requirements, and they have different paid back periods. So we're starting to see different roles for in this part of value chain. You're seeing the many deals that say Uber has signed over the last eighteen months. They've signed deals with at least ten different self driving vehicle developers across the taxi and truck space and the
delivery blot space, I should say as well. And they're really trying to put the best foot forward to borrow the Jeff Bezos expression just focus on what makes the beer taste better and really specialize in the different areas. So we're really starting to see a more robust and definitive shape form for the robotaxidatty chain.
Our thanks to Andrew Grant being af head of intelligent mobility coming up and in depth look at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen then his role in the Trump administration.
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence on Bloomberg Radio, providing research and data on two thousand companies in one hundred and thirty industries.
You can access Bloomberg Intelligence via Big on the terminal. I'm Lisa Matteo and Paul Sweeney.
This is Bloomberg.
You're listening to Bloomberg Intelligence with Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Radio.
And I'm Lisa Matteo filling in on Bloomberg Intelligence.
We move next to news from the networking Bill Weather Cisco Systems. This week, Cisco reported fourth quarter earnings that narrowly beat analyst expectations.
The company also gave a forecast for the current fiscal year, with sales between fifty nine and sixty billion dollars. That's roughly in line with analysts expectations, and the lukewarm forecast disappointed investors who hoped for a boost from massive AI data center projects.
For more on ess, Lisa and I were joined by wou Jinho, Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analysts. The first ask Wooje for his takeaways on Cisco earnings.
At the end of the day, the guidance was a reminder that they are still tied to IT spending, and you know, I viewed it as more as prudent conservatism because they don't know what's happening on the second half of the year given where we are, you know, we have little visibility in terms of rates as well as tire still.
So the company recognized about one billion dollars in AI revenue on fiscal twenty twenty five, and I guess AI infrastructure or for large from large cloud of providers who are over eight hundred million in the quarter. So where do we think these numbers can go?
Yeah, Look, Paul, they forecasted a billion dollars in orders for fiscal twenty five. They double that in fiscal twenty six. Recognize the billion of it this year. I wouldn't be surprised if AI revenues grow at least another fifty percent from here. And they're penetrating multiple pockets right not only into the cloud, but if you think about a longer term, when enterprise adoption really starts kicking in, there is going to be a growth driver.
So we have to.
See where it'll be in twenty six and twenty seven when enterprise grows. But the partnership with then video should be beneficial to the longer term.
What is it AI sector? Is it just to competitive? I mean, who are some of their peers? How are they doing against them?
Well, if we think about it, well, they have multiple they're in AI in multiple vectors right, so from a networking space as one of the bigger competitors, as well as a smaller company called Celestica from they also they're also very very big on optical components, and they're coming up against companies like Marvel as well as Siena, and they also provide AI servers, and think about Dell and HPE.
So look, is it competitive, yes, but they're one of the few American vendors that can actually supply components all the way to the system hardware.
Which what what are companies like Cisco and and Dell and some other big American companies throughout the tech stack chain? What are they saying just about the environment in terms of demand from their customers. Are they sensing waning demand or wavering demand? Just to see how some of these I don't know, teriffs other economic policies may work out.
Sure, Paul, you know, Cisco is one of the first hardware belt weathers that came out. I will tell you from from the numbers that I've seen on the companies that have reported, you know, the IT spending environment has actually been more resilient than I had thought. I went into the quarter with my mediar outlook as being a little bit cautious and negative, and quite frankly, the results have come in better than I anticipated. The outlooks have
come in better than I anticipated. But the fact of the matter is, I don't know what's going to happen past December, and I think the Cisco's guidance reflect that. We'll have a better sense in a couple of weeks from now when companies like Dell and then HPE after Labor Day when they.
Report, did they talk about their guidance at all about the impacts? We mentioned tariff quickly, but did the impact of tariffs? If so, like, how do they intend to lessen that impact from tariffs?
You know, you know, Cisco has been probably one of the better companies in terms of managing expectations of tariffs as well as maneuvering the supply chain with the tariff. So in terms of managing expectations, they embedded tariff impact in their guidance, and because came in a little bit lower than we had anticipated, that actually helped the EPs just a little bit going forward.
You know, all of the guidance.
Includes the tariff impact. Now, the one thing I will add, we're still waiting for the semiconductor rulings as it relates to Section two three to two. We'll see where it stands. If we do have a negative ruling there, that could not only affect Cisco's guidance and margins, but also the rest of the electronics space.
All right, thanks to Woo Jinho, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior technology analyst.
This week we focus on a Bloomberg Big Takes story entitled Scott Bessant on Taris, deficis and Trump's Economic Plan.
You can find it on Bloomberg dot Com and The Terminal. It's also the cover story this week for the Bloomberg Business Week magazine.
The story looks at how US Treasury Secretary Scott Besson has the ear of President Donald Trump and why nervous investors worldwide hope it stays that way.
Bloomberg's Eric Shatsker and Daniel Flatley co wrote the story, and we're part of the team that recently interviewed Besson.
Earlier in the week.
Guest host Norman lind and I were joined by Eric Schatsker, editorial director for a Bloomberg New Economy. We began the conversation by asking Eric for his key takeaways from the best in interview.
Well, first of all, the man is unbelievably busy. Spent a day at the Treasury Department with alcoholague, Dan Flatley and to observe how much he gets done in the course of the day, including spending an extended amount of time with US gives you a window into the life of the Treasury Secretary in the Trump administration. And it's important to emphasize in the Trump administration because this particular Treasury secretary has been given a whole host of responsibilities
that go beyond that of the typical Treasury secretary. We know that the Treasury secretary in any administration is involved in tax policy, is involved in economic sanctions, is involved in financial regulation and the like. But President Trump has tasked Scott Besson with trade negotiations, with striking and not just any old trade negotiations China perhaps the most difficult negotiation of all, Japan, which was successful, South Korea, which
was successful, in Indonesia, the list goes on. He's also the acting IRS Commissioner. He also crafted the deal that the very novel and original deal that the United States struck with Ukraine for a share of that country's mineral resource wealth back in April. These are not and furthermore, I have to add he was instrumental in getting the One Big Beautiful Bill through opposition in both among Republicans in both the House and the Senate in order to
meet the president's self imposed July fourth deadline. So Scott Besson has taken on way more than your traditional Treasury secretary does, and much of that is because the President himself has asked him to do so.
And it seems as though a lot of people see Beson as really having the president's ear here. And this is a really fantastic story. Okay, what was the most surprising element through your conversation with him?
Oh?
Well, there's so many surprises. Say that the thing I didn't fully appreciate and which he spelled out for us and which others spelled out for us, is the degree to which this is something he sought after going back many years. Besen told us that he thought about joining the Trump campaign as early as twenty sixteen, but at that time he just started a new hedge fund, Key Square Group, and he didn't feel like he could abandon
his employees or abandon his clients. But what he did do was start to get to know the people close to Trump almost immediately thereafter, starting with Steve Bannon and subsequently Peter Navarro, Stephen Moore, Kevin Hassett. For example, Trump's
close economic advisors Art Laffer. He went down to see Art Laugher in the South, made a pilgrimage of starts to get Art Laugher's blessing for his ambitions to become Treasury secretary, and these he didn't make known to Trump until November of twenty two, three throws, so it was almost a six year period in which he was maneuvering to position himself that for a shot at Treasury secretary.
And when he saw Trump in that November twenty twenty three meeting at mar A Lago, Trump asked him if he wanted the job, if he was interested in being fed chair, and Besen said, no, I have another job in mind. Very good.
The Street Eric gives Scott Bessen a fair amount of credit for walking to President back from maybe some of the more difficult tariffs that were initially announced. Is that a valid point. Did Scott Besson play a big role in walking the president back a little bit and does he take credit for that or is he kind of demure?
Besson insists that his job is not to explain things to the president or to advise the president. It is to present the president with a series of options. Here's path one, here's path two, here's here's path three. And I will explain to you where we get if we go down one, if we go down two, or if we go down three. And he leaves it ultimately for
Trump to make the decision. That's very I wouldn't say that's unique to this president, but Trump has a very particular view of his role as a decider in chief in this administration that is perhaps different from what we saw with Biden, or with Obama, or even going back in history to other Republicans like George W. Bush and
maybe even Ronald Reagan. So Besont does not claim credit for being the de escalationist, but it is clear talking to people around him and to understanding how the market thinks market psychology, if you will, which is one of his areas of expertise, having been a macro hedge fund manager for almost forty years. That is where it really counts. The market trusts him, and the market, based on its observations, draws these conclusions rightly or wrongly.
Does he share any concerns he may have about just getting somehow involved in some of the crossfire that it happens around President Trump and getting into President Trump's bad graces or just kind of I mean, because it's such a perilous those people that fight fly close to President Trump historically have done at their own risk.
Well, the former vice president, so.
Yeah, how does he negotiate? Does he even acknowledge that that's a risk.
What I divine from the conversations we had with the Treasury Secretary is that it there is a formula for success in the Trump administration, and it means making certain compromises if you will with yourself. You can come in with your own ideas, but it is not your job to advance that agenda. So you have to make some
compromises if you don't. And Steven Minuchin, the former treasure secretary, points this out, if you cannot represent the president well, in other words, if you can't get behind what the president wants, the role has no power. What's the point of being in DC. What's the point of abandoning a forty year career in finance where your rose to be one of the most successful hedge fund managers? And have you know for it all to be worthless, had to have no power. No, you want to be able to
wield influence and get things done. And that's very much in the back of Scott Besant's mind. What's my legacy as Treasury Secretary going.
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