Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, November 19th.

Today on Forbes, the inside story of Scott Bessent's assent to possible Treasury Secretary

nominee.

Scott Bessent is one of the leading candidates to be named Trump's nominee for the U.S.

Secretary of the Treasury, along with Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard

Lutnik, former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, and Apollo Global Management CEO Mark Rowan.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump is inviting the contenders to interview with him

at Mar-a-Lago this week. Whoever is chosen and confirmed by the Senate will be one of the most

important players in charge of the biggest economy in the world, formulating and recommending

financial, economic, and tax policy. Charm, quick-wits, and a quote, brilliant macroeconomic

brain have powered Bessence's assent on Wall Street, and now in

politics. Trump called him, quote, a nice-looking guy in one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street.

Over his lifetime, the 62-year-old South Carolina native has built relationships with some of the

world's wealthiest investors and most influential

policymakers, from liberal billionaire George Soros, for whom he worked twice, to one of Saudi

Arabia's wealthiest families, to the late Japanese prime minister, Shinso Abe. Former colleagues

from various stages of his career praised Besson's investing acumen and described

a steely Wall Street edge. Someone who worked with him at Soros Fund Management said,

quote, he comes off as a little reserved and he's even keeled, but he's tough. He doesn't suffer fools.

Another person who reported to Besson at Soros said, quote,

He's an extremely unemotional guy. We were involved in transactions where we spent 12 to 16 months

of time on a deal. If we came down to the end of those transactions and the facts had changed,

...