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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
My friend Frederick Forsyth was the most patriotic man I've ever met
A preposterous inversion of the natural order of things caused me to meet Freddie Forsyth more than 30 years ago. He wrote me a fan letter. Had I been a fan-letter writing type, I ought by then to have sent him several – notably about The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, two of the best thrillers of the 20th century that I had relished as a teenager in the 1970s. Yet it was he who wrote to me about an article of mine in The Spectator: I can't remember exactly what it was about, but I think it was an assault on the Major administration that was lurching towards the debacle of Black Wednesday in the autumn of 1992. That was Freddie all over. Although one of the world's greatest thriller writers, he was at heart always a journalist, and loved the society of hacks. For years he wrote a column for a national newspaper, and was brilliant at it; and he was brilliant precisely because he teemed with ideas, and expressed them with supreme articulacy. Freddie always had plenty to say because there was so much that motivated him, and annoyed him. He was one of the most patriotic men I ever knew. He believed intensely in our country, abhorred its apparent decline, and wanted to hold to account those he believed were responsible for it. Those feelings imbued almost every piece of journalism he wrote. We corresponded – letters in those days, in the age before email, his under the commanding header 'From The Desk of Frederick Forsyth' – for some months before we met. The letters and the writing paper seemed so fluent and so grand that I became even more in awe of Freddie than I had already been, and I viewed our eventual meeting with both excitement and apprehension. The summer after the fan letter, on a roasting hot day, he and his wife, Sandy, came over to our old farmhouse and sat in the garden and ate a long and boozy lunch. In those days they lived not far away, in their own much more upholstered farmhouse in rural Hertfordshire, and we started to see quite a lot of each other. It was not merely that he and I had a shared world view, and our wives got on famously: the Forsyths were the best imaginable company. Freddie had no side whatsoever, and his modesty was as conspicuous as his massive achievements. He was almost embarrassed when I asked him whether he would autograph my copies of his novels. Yet he inevitably exuded glamour however hard he tried not to. This was not least down to Sandy, who had been Elizabeth Taylor's assistant. One met all sorts of remarkable people when asked over to their house for Sunday lunches, all of which managed to last until dinner time. Celebrated actors were thick on the ground there – Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Powell and Barry Humphries were all close friends, as was Sally Burton, widow of the great actor Richard. I recall a long and revelatory conversation at the Forsyths' table with George Carman, the leading QC and libel lawyer, that was a definite education for me as a journalist. Two things were certain about a visit to the Forsyths: that you would come away having been spectacularly fed and watered, and richly entertained by the company. Yet Freddie, with his easy charm and complete lack of self-obsession, had had his setbacks. He was always devoid of self-pity, but told me ruefully about how he had been fleeced out of a fortune by Roger 'the Ferret' Levett, the notorious fraudster to whom he had entrusted his considerable earnings from his literary successes. The plan had been that Freddie would give up writing; but the Ferret ensured he had to carry on. I always felt, though the pain the Ferret had caused him was undeniably genuine, that in some way he was glad of the necessity to keep writing. That, again, was the old hack in him: once you have written for a living it is simply impossible to stop. Such was the demand for his work that he soon ensured his and Sandy's lives would not be damaged by the crime inflicted on them. With the calmness and determination typical of the heroes and anti-heroes of his fiction, he simply restored order. To his friends, the way he handled the outrage done to him was just another reason to admire him. And in time we realised there was even more to Freddie than met the eye. One of the most memorable episodes in our friendship was when I persuaded him to come up to Cambridge, about a decade ago, to speak to the University Intelligence Seminar about his association with MI6 in the mid-1960s, at the height of the Cold War. Freddie was on a journalistic assignment to Prague; and allowed himself to become, to put it mildly, extremely friendly with a beautiful Czechoslovak woman working for the country's secret service. It didn't seem that Freddie got much out of her, though he ignored the finest journalistic tradition, and did not make his excuses and leave. The audience of immensely serious intelligence experts loved every second. Freddie's last years were overshadowed by Sandy's deteriorating health; although almost a decade his junior, she spent several years in a care home before her death last autumn, by which he was stricken. It was a genuine love match between the two of them, and although Freddie visited her regularly he was manifestly distressed by their forced separation. They had by then moved from Hertfordshire to Buckinghamshire; and he got into the habit of going to his village pub at lunchtimes; his favourite lunch was a drink and a pork pie. At Sandy's funeral he was heroically brave, and chatted animatedly to his friends in the pub after the service; we all knew what a blow he had suffered, but he appeared to be bearing it stoically. The rapid decline in his health was alarming, and it is almost as though after Sandy's death he lost the will to live. I only heard on Saturday that he was seriously ill; he could not, I was told, see anybody. Nonetheless his death was an inordinate shock. He was a great friend: but more than that, he was a great man and a landmark of our culture. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
My friend Frederick Forsyth was the most patriotic man I've ever met
A preposterous inversion of the natural order of things caused me to meet Freddie Forsyth more than 30 years ago. He wrote me a fan letter. Had I been a fan-letter writing type, I ought by then to have sent him several – notably about The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, two of the best thrillers of the 20th century that I had relished as a teenager in the 1970s. Yet it was he who wrote to me about an article of mine in The Spectator: I can't remember exactly what it was about, but I think it was an assault on the Major administration that was lurching towards the debacle of Black Wednesday in the autumn of 1992. That was Freddie all over. Although one of the world's greatest thriller writers, he was at heart always a journalist, and loved the society of hacks. For years he wrote a column for a national newspaper, and was brilliant at it; and he was brilliant precisely because he teemed with ideas, and expressed them with supreme articulacy. Freddie always had plenty to say because there was so much that motivated him, and annoyed him. He was one of the most patriotic men I ever knew. He believed intensely in our country, abhorred its apparent decline, and wanted to hold to account those he believed were responsible for it. Those feelings imbued almost every piece of journalism he wrote. We corresponded – letters in those days, in the age before email, his under the commanding header 'From The Desk of Frederick Forsyth' – for some months before we met. The letters and the writing paper seemed so fluent and so grand that I became even more in awe of Freddie than I had already been, and I viewed our eventual meeting with both excitement and apprehension. The summer after the fan letter, on a roasting hot day, he and his wife, Sandy, came over to our old farmhouse and sat in the garden and ate a long and boozy lunch. In those days they lived not far away, in their own much more upholstered farmhouse in rural Hertfordshire, and we started to see quite a lot of each other. It was not merely that he and I had a shared world view, and our wives got on famously: the Forsyths were the best imaginable company. Freddie had no side whatsoever, and his modesty was as conspicuous as his massive achievements. He was almost embarrassed when I asked him whether he would autograph my copies of his novels. Yet he inevitably exuded glamour however hard he tried not to. This was not least down to Sandy, who had been Elizabeth Taylor's assistant. One met all sorts of remarkable people when asked over to their house for Sunday lunches, all of which managed to last until dinner time. Celebrated actors were thick on the ground there – Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Powell and Barry Humphries were all close friends, as was Sally Burton, widow of the great actor Richard. I recall a long and revelatory conversation at the Forsyths's table with George Carman, the leading QC and libel lawyer, that was a definite education for me as a journalist. Two things were certain about a visit to the Forsyths: that you would come away having been spectacularly fed and watered, and richly entertained by the company. Yet Freddie, with his easy charm and complete lack of self-obsession, had had his setbacks. He was always devoid of self-pity, but told me ruefully about how he had been fleeced out of a fortune by Roger 'the Ferret' Levett, the notorious fraudster to whom he had entrusted his considerable earnings from his literary successes. The plan had been that Freddie would give up writing; but the Ferret ensured he had to carry on. I always felt, though the pain the Ferret had caused him was undeniably genuine, that in some way he was glad of the necessity to keep writing. That, again, was the old hack in him: once you have written for a living it is simply impossible to stop. Such was the demand for his work that he soon ensured his and Sandy's lives would not be damaged by the crime inflicted on them. With the calmness and determination typical of the heroes and anti-heroes of his fiction, he simply restored order. To his friends, the way he handled the outrage done to him was just another reason to admire him. And in time we realised there was even more to Freddie than met the eye. One of the most memorable episodes in our friendship was when I persuaded him to come up to Cambridge, about a decade ago, to speak to the University Intelligence Seminar about his association with MI6 in the mid-1960s, at the height of the Cold War. Freddie was on a journalistic assignment to Prague; and allowed himself to become, to put it mildly, extremely friendly with a beautiful Czechoslovak woman working for the country's secret service. It didn't seem that Freddie got much out of her, though he ignored the finest journalistic tradition, and did not make his excuses and leave. The audience of immensely serious intelligence experts loved every second. Freddie's last years were overshadowed by Sandy's deteriorating health; although almost a decade his junior, she spent several years in a care home before her death last autumn, by which he was stricken. It was a genuine love match between the two of them, and although Freddie visited her regularly he was manifestly distressed by their forced separation. They had by then moved from Hertfordshire to Buckinghamshire; and he got into the habit of going to his village pub at lunchtimes; his favourite lunch was a drink and a pork pie. At Sandy's funeral he was heroically brave, and chatted animatedly to his friends in the pub after the service; we all knew what a blow he had suffered, but he appeared to be bearing it stoically. The rapid decline in his health was alarming, and it is almost as though after Sandy's death he lost the will to live. I only heard on Saturday that he was seriously ill; he could not, I was told, see anybody. Nonetheless his death was an inordinate shock. He was a great friend: but more than that, he was a great man and a landmark of our culture.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Who is Scott Bessent? The gay banker and Trump's tariff king who beat up Elon Musk
Scott Bessent, Trump's Treasury Secretary and a former Wall Street heavyweight, is making headlines not for fiscal policy but for a physical fight. In April 2025, during a tense Oval Office meeting about appointing an IRS commissioner, Bessent reportedly called Elon Musk a 'total fraud.' According to Steve Bannon, Musk reacted by slamming his shoulder into Bessent's rib cage 'like a rugby player.' Bessent allegedly struck back. The confrontation stunned White House staff and led to Musk's removal from the West Wing. The clash marks a dramatic escalation in the power struggle within Trump's inner circle and deepens the Musk-Bessent feud. Scott Besset's Wall Street beginnings and billion-dollar bets with Soros fund After graduating from Yale in 1984, Scott Bessent launched his financial career and rose to prominence at Soros Fund Management. He helped lead the firm's London office and played a key role in making a $1 billion profit on Black Wednesday in 1992. In 2013, he scored another massive victory, generating $1.2 billion in profits betting against the Japanese yen. By 2015, he established his own hedge fund, Key Square Group, cementing his status as a financial heavyweight. Political shift from Democratic supporter to MAGA movement insider Bessent was once a reliable donor to Democratic causes. He hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore in 2000, donated to John McCain and Barack Obama, and gave $25,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2013. However, after Trump's election in 2016, Bessent became one of his biggest supporters, donating millions and eventually advising the 2024 campaign. His influence grew as he helped develop Trump's economic agenda and organized high-dollar fundraisers across the country. Historic appointment as the first openly gay US Treasury Secretary Sworn in on January 28, 2025, Bessent made history as the first openly gay person to serve as Treasury Secretary and the highest-ranking LGBTQ official in the history of the U.S. government. While praised by some LGBTQ rights advocates, his appointment also drew criticism from former classmates at Yale, who accused him of enabling authoritarian tendencies within the administration. Bessent dismissed their concerns, calling the criticism 'equal parts odd and sad. ' Personal conflict with Elon Musk over economic promises and power Tensions between Bessent and Elon Musk escalated over Musk's role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Bessent criticized Musk for failing to deliver promised spending cuts, accusing him of exaggeration and fraud. According to Steve Bannon, this led to a physical altercation in the White House, with Musk allegedly attacking Bessent in frustration. The incident ended with Musk being escorted out and left a visible bruise that sparked speculation after a later press conference. Leadership on tariffs and reshaping America's trade strategy Bessent took the lead in implementing President Trump's sweeping tariffs in early 2025. He warned foreign governments against retaliation and insisted that short-term market drops would not derail the administration's agenda. Bessent also pushed for countries to scale back their ties with China as part of a broader effort to increase U.S. leverage in global trade. After initial backlash, he and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick persuaded Trump to pause several tariffs to avoid economic fallout. The rise of a combative and unapologetic power broker in Washington Scott Bessent is not just another financial technocrat. He has emerged as one of the most influential figures in Trump's second term, combining policy leadership with a take-no-prisoners attitude. Whether rewriting global trade norms or standing his ground—literally—against Elon Musk, Bessent is carving out a legacy defined by boldness, loyalty, and confrontation.
Arabian Post
30-04-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
I am a nervous bull on sterling since 1.22. Why?
Matein Khalid Sterling's wild swings in Planet Forex literally shaped my path in life after high school. Magret Thatcher's monetarist revolution and North Sea oil bonanza had taken cable to 2.40 while the Pakistan military's judicial murder of Prime Minister Bhutto on April 4th, 1979 meant that we were expelled from the Commonwealth. So I was easily able to persuade my parents that Matt should not follow my Dad and grandfather to London for an education in the sceptred isle but head out to the states with four school cronies to Arizona State (ASU), voted as America's top party school by the glossy magazine founded by Hugh Hefner. Since the human brain extrapolates the recent past, I saw no reason why my Dad should pay triple the cost of my ASU sojourn in cold/drizzly London with the truly awful dorms of the LSE. Since Dad had endured the cold showers and stiff upper lip of the Brit ruling classes a generation earlier, he enthusiastically agreed that I should go to the ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona, then and now known as Sin City, home of the Sun Devils. So I clinched the argument after I predicted that sterling was headed to 12 UAE dirhams based upon my self serving gut instinct. Little did I know that destiny had handcuffed me to the mood swings/temper tantrums of sterling for life as I was trading currency futures on the Chicago Merc's IMM even while a student after I transferred to Wharton in West Philly. I was fascinated by sterling for two reasons. One, it always punched about its weight due to its role as the world's reserve currency in the heyday of the British Empire on which the sun never set but now has sadly gone into eclipse, Mrs. Thatcher's revolution in UK economics, the offshore oil gushers off the coast of Aberdeen, the City of London's role as the epicenter of Eurobond market/asset securitization mega trend of the late 1980's. Black Wednesday, 15th September, 1992, the day sterling crashed out of the ERM and George Soros made a billion dollar killing with the help of his London trader Scott Bessent is still vivid in my mind after all these years. See also Get set for a short covering bungee jump on Nasdaq! So I am pleased as punch to have convinced several close friends in Dubai to accumulate sterling in the 1.22-1.25 cable range as one of my anti-dollar proxies. The neural networks in my cortex coupled with a spectrum of relative value, positioning, options skew and macro metrics convinced me to be a buyer on sterling against the greenback at every dip, even at 1.34. I used to love the young Queen Elizabeth's profile on sterling bank notes whenever I visited London. Can my Brit friends tell me if we will now see Queen Camilla Shand's visage on the quid? Admittedly, my best sterling strategy trades have all been on the short side. We shorted GBP at 2.10 and covered it at 1.64 in late 2007 – summer 2008. I had literally gone to the Bavarian village of Berchtesgaden to avoid taking a punt on a binary geopolitical event scheduled for June 23, 2016. Yet the moment I heard the Brexit news I knew it was time to short the hell out of the sterling. My third big short was a no-brainer after Liz Truss Mini-Budget triggered a neutron bomb in the gilts market and cable plunged from 1.25 to 1.05 in September 2022. The month HM the Queen died at the Balmoral. Sterling will be a fave safe haven against literal Trump mania on trade policy. My preferred poison is inflation linked gilts that enable me to pocket 2.5% real rates and are so much cheaper than inflated German Bunds. London and Brussels will converge to a modus vivendi while Sir Keir has embraced Tony Blair's art of poodle-nomics. One state dinner for Trump at Buck House, a weekend in Windsor and a few introductions to classy blond duchesses will ensure that the kingdom by the silver sea has nothing to fear from the Orange Man's volcanic tariff tantrums. In fact, I recommend that the ancient town of St. Andrew's, where golf was born, where William/Kate met, be renamed Trump-a-Lago in the Big Guy's honour as he too is destined for MAGA sainthood. This is good for zero tariff for UK Plc and thus 10 more full points on my cable long. Rule Britannia, you no longer rule the waves, but you definitely rule the airwaves. See also Trump and Xi went eyeball to eyeball on trade and Xi blinkin! The UK's services economy is insulated from Trump's tariff fury. The Labour Party has a 400+ MP majority in Westminster. Rachel Reeves' Budget was definitely fiscal tough love. The Old Lady's rate cuts will boost the UK's growth rate relative to the EU. Sterling is thus also a buy against the Euro for a 82 pence target. Hip hip hurrah, jolly boating weather duckies! Also published on Medium. Notice an issue? Arabian Post strives to deliver the most accurate and reliable information to its readers. If you believe you have identified an error or inconsistency in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our editorial team at editor[at]thearabianpost[dot]com. We are committed to promptly addressing any concerns and ensuring the highest level of journalistic integrity.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Scott Bessent: The man who saved the economy
At 1.18pm on Wednesday, Donald Trump resuscitated the global economy with a 161 word Truth Social post reversing his controversial tariff policy. Mr Trump insisted the reason behind his abrupt u-turn was because people had become 'yippy' and 'afraid'. However it is thought that Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, ultimately convinced the US president to change course. For days the Republican leader had aggressively doubled down on his sweeping 'reciprocal' tariffs - ignoring pleas from billionaire donors, world leaders and CEOs to relent. But a week after he paraded his colour-coded chart in the White House rose garden on 'Liberation Day', the US president backed down, announcing a 90-day pause for everyone but China. The u-turn was so abrupt it caught most of his cabinet members off guard. Mr Bessent, Mr Trump and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, were holed up in the Oval Office from around midday on Wednesday, crafting a short statement that would send stocks soaring after the most volatile period since the pandemic. 'We wrote it from our hearts, right?' Mr Trump later said about the Truth Social post. 'It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don't want to hurt countries that don't need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate.' But how did Mr Bessent manage to win over the president as he ignored pleas from his 'first buddy' Elon Musk and other key allies to reverse the tariffs choking the economy? Mr Bessent's mettle was put to the test decades ago: he was one of George Soros' right-hand men when the billionaire bet against the pound on Black Wednesday. Then in his early thirties, Mr Bessent was part of one of the most famous trades in history, helping net the Soros Fund some $1.5 billion in the space of a month. Despite his association with the liberal billionaire, who is reviled by the Right, Mr Trump respects his former economic adviser, once describing him as a 'nice-looking guy and one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street'. So when Mr Bessent called for a private meeting with Mr Trump on Sunday, after a bruising few days in the stock market following the president's tariff announcement, he hoped the Republican leader would be prepared to listen. The treasury secretary downplayed fears of a recession publicly, before flying back with Mr Trump to Washington from Palm Beach on Air Force One. As the pair flew back north, Mr Bessent advised Mr Trump to focus on negotiating with other countries while heaping praise on his negotiating abilities, sources told the New York Times. He also said Mr Trump needed to clarify his endgame, something which Mr Trump pushed back on, saying the pain was 'short term', the paper reported. Appearing to digest some of Mr Bessent's advice, Mr Trump told reporters 'virtually every country wants to negotiate'. As Mr Trump showed no sign of letting up, Republican Senators, including Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, appeared on Fox News and said they hoped Mr Trump would begin negotiating with other countries to make deals. 'I'll leave it up to you what's enough, what's not enough,' Mr Graham said he told Mr Trump on Tuesday night, 'but I think you can see people are looking for some points on the board.' For several days after Mr Trump sent the economy into a downturn, the president claimed he did not care if the stock market fell, as trillions of dollars were wiped from the market in days. By Wednesday morning the depths of the economic crisis became clear as US government bond yields, which form the backbone of the global financial system, surged. That morning Mr Trump spoke with the Karin Keller-Sutter, the Swiss president, whose country has been given 31 per cent tariffs. Ms Keller-Sutter urged Mr Trump to backtrack on the punitive policy, according to The New York Times. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, told Fox News that morning that the 'likely outcome' was a recession. At 9.30am on Wednesday Mr Trump had urged everyone to 'Be cool!' 'Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!', he wrote on Truth Social. Four minutes later, in comments which have sparked some concerns over insider trading, Mr Trump wrote: 'This is a great time to buy!!! DJT'. Hours later Mr Bessent and Mr Lutnick banded together and met with the president, insisting their phones had been flooded with calls from countries wanting to negotiate - the tariffs had worked but they now needed time to thrash out deals. The pair pointed out that China's retaliatory tariff hike on US imports gave Mr Trump wiggle room to isolate Beijing while pausing the penalties on other countries, an administration official told Axios. Mr Bessent appeared to have triumphed over senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, who had been pushing for aggressive tariffs and had a public spat with Mr Musk, in winning Mr Trump's ear. By midday, Mr Bessent and Mr Lutnick were in the Oval Office helping Mr Trump word his stunning reversal, which was described by the latter as 'one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his presidency'. 'Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world's markets, I am hereby raising the tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125 per cent, effective immediately', Mr Trump wrote. He added: 'Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called representatives of the United States... and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, I have authorised a 90 day pause, and a substantially lowered reciprocal tariff during this period, of 10 per cent, also effective immediately.' The markets immediately surged, with the benchmark S&P 500 closing 9.5 pc higher. Bond yields came down from earlier highs and the dollar rebounded against safe-haven currencies. 'This was driven by the president's strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along,' Mr Bessent said on Wednesday as he tried to make the sudden gear change appear part of a master-plan. But Mr Trump appeared to contradict this by telling reporters he initiated the pause because: 'I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy'. 'I saw last night that people were getting a little queasy,' Mr Trump said. 'The bond market right now is beautiful.' 'I guess they say it was the biggest day in financial history,' Mr Trump said, less than 90 minutes after his Truth Social post. The final decision, he said, 'probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up. We didn't have the use of, we didn't have access to lawyers,' he told reporters in the Oval Office. 'We wrote it up from our hearts.' 'But this was something certainly we've been talking about for a period of time, and we decided to pull the trigger, and we did it today, and we're happy about it,' he added. Now poised to negotiate with trading partners in a 'bespoke', country-by-country strategy, Mr Bessent carries the weight of the global economy on his shoulders. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
