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By Steve Holland and Alexandra Ulmer (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he had chosen prominent investor Scott Bessent as U.S. Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs. "I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the World's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists." Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term. The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. That list included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department. Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans." Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers. ECONOMY'S QUARTERBACK As the 79th Treasury secretary, Bessent will essentially be the highest-ranking U.S. economic official, responsible for maintaining the plumbing of the world's largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation's bills to managing the $28.6-trillion Treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises. The Treasury boss also runs U.S. financial sanctions policy, oversees the U.S.-led International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the U.S. Bessent will face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8 trillion over a decade due to Trump's plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on Social Security income. Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon U.S. debt by $22 trillion through 2033. Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump's agenda will unleash stronger economic growth that will grow revenue and shore up market confidence. Bessent will also inherit the role carved out by Yellen to lead the Group of Seven wealthy democracies to provide tens of billions of dollars in economic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion and tighten sanctions on Moscow. But given Trump's desire to end the war quickly and withdraw U.S. financial support for Ukraine, it is unclear whether he would pursue this. Another area where Bessent will likely differ from Yellen is her focus on climate change, from her mandate that development banks expand lending for clean energy to incorporating climate risks into financial regulations and managing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits. Trump, a climate-change skeptic, has vowed to increase production of U.S. fossil fuel energy and end the clean-energy subsidies in President Joe Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. FED FACING The Treasury secretary is also the administration's closest point of contact with the Federal Reserve. Both Yellen under Biden and Mnuchin under Trump typically met weekly with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, often over breakfast or lunch. Bessent has floated the idea of creating a "shadow" Fed chair. This would entail nominating as early as possible a presumptive Powell successor to the Fed Board who would then deliver their own policy guidance so that, as Bessent told Barron's last month, "no one is really going to care what Jerome Powell has to say anymore." The next seat to open up at the Fed Board is that of Governor Adriana Kugler, whose term runs to January 2026. Bessent has since said he no longer thinks the idea of a shadow chair worth pursuing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Powell's term as Fed chair expires in May 2026, and presidents rarely wait until the Fed chief's term ends before nominating a successor. FROM FINANCE TO DC Bessent, 62, primarily lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his husband and two children. He grew up in the fishing village of Little River, South Carolina, where Bessent has said his father, a real estate investor, experienced booms and busts. Bessent worked for noted short seller Jim Chanos in the late 1980s and then joined Soros Fund Management, the famed macroeconomic investment firm of billionaire George Soros. He soon helped Soros and top deputy Stanley Druckenmiller on their most famous trade - shorting the British pound in 1992 and earning the firm more than $1 billion. In 2015, Bessent raised $4.5 billion, including $2 billion from Soros, to launch Key Square Group, a hedge fund firm that bets on macroeconomic trends. Key Square's main fund gained about 31% in 2022, according to media reports, but firm assets have declined to approximately $577 million as of December 2023, according to a regulatory filing. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Alexandra Ulmer, David Lawder, Lawrence Delevingne, Ann Saphir, Costas Pitas, Nathan Layne and Jasper Ward; editing by Megan Davies, Rod Nickel and Rosalba O'Brien)Maher urges Americans to 'not let politics f--- up the holidays': Shouldn't 'cut people off' for Trump win
NEWS BRIEF Arctic Wolf has announced plans to acquire Cylance from its owner, BlackBerry, to add endpoint security to its Aurora Platform, which also includes managed detection and response (MDR), vulnerability management, managed security awareness, and cloud security capabilities. The integration addresses a growing demand for unified security solutions and could potentially position Arctic Wolf to take on competitors, such as CrowdStrike and SentinelOne. Arctic Wolf will be offering a native endpoint security solution as well as giving customers the option to work with any of the 15 supported endpoint products. "By adding endpoint security to our platform, we will be delivering the security outcomes organizations want in one, frictionless operational platform to go toe-to-toe with today's advanced threats, while maintaining our commitment to customers and partners leveraging other endpoint solutions," said Dan Schiappa, Arctic Wolf's chief product and services officer, in a statement. In a separate blog post , Schiappa said Aurora has integrated with Cylance for over seven years, and the "ability to stop 98% of endpoint attacks before they begin is something we have seen first-hand in our SOC." He assured existing Cylance customers that their endpoint security products will continue to be fully supported. The transaction is a mix of $160 million in cash and 5.5 million Arctic Wolf common shares of Arctic Wolf. Arctic Wolf is currently privately owned but has IPO plans. The deal is expected to close in BlackBerry's fourth fiscal quarter, which ends in February. The combination of Cylance and Arctic Wolf would "rapidly eliminate alert fatigue, reduce total risk exposure, and help customers unlock further value with our warranty and insurability programs," said Nick Schneider, president and chief executive officer of Arctic Wolf, said in a statement. Cylance is Arctic Wolf's sixth acquisition. Previous deals include secure intelligence platform RootSecure, threat-hunting platform Rank Software, security training company Habitu8, digital forensics firm Tetra Defense, and security orchestration software developer Revelstoke. Arctic Wolf is getting Cylance at a significant discount. BlackBerry originally paid $1.4 billion to acquire Cylance in 2018. Cylance was key to BlackBerry's transformation away from a mobile handset company into a provider of cybersecurity services. "As Arctic Wolf leverages its scale to build upon and grow the Cylance business, BlackBerry will benefit as a reseller of the portfolio to our large government customers and as a shareholder of the company," said BlackBerry CEO John Giammatteo in a statement. BlackBerry will retain its Secure Communications portfolio, including Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) for securing devices, AtHoc for critical event management, and SecuSUITE for secure messaging and phone calls. As Dark Reading’s managing editor for features, Fahmida Y Rashid focuses on stories that provide security professionals with the information they need to do their jobs. She has spent over a decade analyzing news events and demystifying security technology for IT professionals and business managers. Prior to specializing in information security, Fahmida wrote about enterprise IT, especially networking, open source, and core internet infrastructure. Before becoming a journalist, she spent over 10 years as an IT professional -- and has experience as a network administrator, software developer, management consultant, and product manager. Her work has appeared in various business and test trade publications, including VentureBeat, CSO Online, InfoWorld, eWEEK, CRN, PC Magazine, and Tom’s Guide.AP Trending SummaryBrief at 5:42 p.m. EST
New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that his government considers India’s eastern region as the country’s growth engine, while the area was considered backward earlier. Addressing a gathering at the “Odisha Parba” event here, the prime minister said investments of Rs 45,000 crore have been approved within 100 days of the formation of a new government in the state. “Odisha has always been a land of seers and scholars. The way the scholars there took our religious texts to every household and connected the public with those, it has played a crucial role in the cultural prosperity of India. “There was a time when India’s eastern region and the states there were called backward. However, I consider the eastern region as the country’s growth engine. That is why we have prioritised the development of the region,” he said. “The budget that we now allocate to Odisha is three times higher than what it was 10 years ago. We are working rapidly in every sector for Odisha’s development and the budget has been increased by 30 per cent this year,” Modi added. The prime minister said the Centre is committed to promoting ease of doing business in Odisha and added that investments of Rs 45,000 crore have been approved within 100 days of the formation of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. “Last year, the G20 Summit was held in India. During the summit, we showcased the photo of the Sun Temple (in Konark). I am also glad that all four doors of the Jagannath temple (in Puri) are open now. Besides, the Ratna Bhandar of the temple is also open,” he added. “Odisha Parba” is a flagship event conducted by the Odia Samaj, a Delhi-based trust engaged in providing valuable support towards the preservation and promotion of Odia heritage. This year, “Odisha Parba” was organised from November 22 to November 24 to showcase the rich heritage of Odisha, displaying colourful cultural forms and exhibiting the vibrant social, cultural and political ethos of the state. Noting that cashew, jute, cotton, turmeric and oilseeds are produced in abundance in Odisha, Modi said the government’s effort is to ensure that these products reach big markets and thereby, benefit the farmers. “There is also a lot of scope for expansion in the seafood-processing industry of Odisha and the government’s effort is to make Odisha seafood a brand that will be in demand in the global market,” he added. Modi said by channelising Odisha’s potential in the right direction, the state can be taken to new heights of development. Emphasising that Odisha can benefit from its strategic location, he said access to domestic and international markets is easy from the state. “Odisha is an important hub of trade for East and South-East Asia. Odisha has immense potential to promote urbanisation,” the prime minister said, adding that his government is also creating new possibilities in the tier-two cities of the state, especially in the districts of western Odisha where development of new infrastructure can lead to the creation of new opportunities. Touching upon the abundant heritage of architecture and science of Odisha, Modi said science, architecture and the vastness of ancient temples like the Sun Temple, the Lingaraj and Mukteshwar temples amaze everyone with their exquisiteness and craftsmanship. PTI GJS BJ RC This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );