Chamath
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
From boardrooms to the White House and beyond, McKinsey's influence in business is virtually unparalleled.
Secretary Besant, welcome back to All In.
We appreciate you taking the time to catch up with us and provide this first year in review.
We're excited to have you here and hear how things are going and what's ahead regarding the fiscal condition of the US government, the economic condition of the US economy, including how things are going for Wall Street and Main Street.
And finally, we'd like to broadly discuss some of the administration's policies, decisions, and how they're playing out or will play out from your point of view.
I'll start us off and maybe to catch up on our last conversation, one of the things that I've cared deeply about and which you shared an objective around is getting...
the budget deficit below 3% of GDP.
I'd love to hear from your point of view how that's going and how things are looking for fiscal year 26, the actions that have been taken and what you think's ahead for that target.
Scott, has that been, I would say, a part of the conversation in the administration now that there is this new revenue stream for the federal government, there's an opportunity to cut taxes and cut other sources of revenue for the federal government?
and that could potentially accelerate the economy.
But balancing that question against the importance of cutting the deficit, how do you think about the balance between using tariffs as a mechanism for reducing the tax burden on the economy versus using the tariffs as an incremental revenue source for the federal government to start to reduce the deficit and pay down the debt eventually?
Yeah, and that ruling is coming out in a few months.
It's January or February.
If you look at one of the key drivers of Main Street's satisfaction with their economic standing, it's the price of debt, the ability for them to buy a home, to buy a car, to extend their lives.
And we've got the 10-year treasury sitting, I think, 4.2 to 4.6 right now in terms of the rate.
And I guess this may be a question that brings in two other issues, the fiscal issue and the economic issue.
Is that a reflection of the state of the fiscal affairs of the federal government, the state of the economy both, or the state of markets selling off bonds?
And doesn't the Fed have an important role to play in bringing those rates down and making rates accessible for Main Street?
If you're now in the bond sales game...
Secretary Besant, I mean, you've been on the other side of the market, but now you're selling the bonds.