A fresh theory ties Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's past as a currency raider to how Washington might handle the dollar today — unsettling for anyone assuming a strong dollar is permanent policy.

• Bessent helped George Soros break the Bank of England in 1992, betting the pound was priced too high and could not be defended.
• Britain was trapped: a weak economy and high inflation, but forced to keep rates painfully high to hold the pound inside Europe's currency pact.
• Soros and Bessent borrowed pounds and sold them relentlessly, absorbing everything the Bank of England bought to prop up the currency.
• On Black Wednesday the pound broke, Britain quit the pact, and Soros walked away with over a billion dollars.
• The lesson now aimed at the US: a government defending an unsustainable currency level eventually loses to the market.

Outlook: Expect more speculation that the man who once profited from a currency collapse may be comfortable letting the dollar weaken rather than fighting it.