In 1992, a 29-year-old Scott Bessent looked at the Bank of England and saw something no one else did.
The Bank of England couldn’t afford to keep its promises. It had committed to keeping the pound trading within a narrow radius against the German mark, requiring it to spend whatever it took to defend the currency’s value. The trouble was that the British economy was fragile—most mortgages in the UK at the time had variable rates, so raising interest rates would devastate British homeowners. Bessent convinced his boss, George Soros, to bet against the pound. When it crashed a week later, Bessent made $1 billion for the firm and made himself and Soros famous.
