Druckenmiller vs Bessent: Hedge-Fund Legend Challenges Former Protégé's Economic Policy

Scott Bessent, once mentored by hedge-fund legend Stanley Druckenmiller, is now at odds with his former boss over economic policy. Druckenmiller recently published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Treasury's decision to double long-dated bond buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation.

The expansion was announced after the 30-year Treasury yield reached a 19-year high, and Bessent suggested it could grow further. Druckenmiller argued that this is not liquidity management but rather price management, stating 'the market's verdict was swift and correct.'

This isn't the first time the two have disagreed; in the early 1990s, they worked together at Soros Fund Management, where they pioneered a 'global macro' approach to investing. Druckenmiller ran a short position against sterling that made roughly $1 billion in a single day when the pound broke on September 16, 1992.

Druckenmiller has used AI to write his op-ed, stating 'there's a reason I moved from an English major to being an economics major. I'm not embarrassed by it.'