George Noble says he has been bearish on bonds "for as long as I can remember," and that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's own comments are what keep proving him right.
Everyone else, he says, ignores the bond market's reaction and treats Bessent as an authority; Noble says the reaction itself is the tell.
"Bessent is either showing his true incompetence or is lying."
Noble managed Fidelity's Overseas Fund to the top ranking among US mutual funds before founding the hedge funds Teton Partners and Gryfalcon, and now runs Noble Capital Advisors.
I listened to the full episode so you can skip it.
Here are the 1 takeaways that matter.
👤 Speaker: George Noble, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Noble Capital Advisors, who managed Fidelity's Overseas Fund to the top ranking among US mutual funds before founding the hedge funds Teton Partners and Gryfalcon
📰 Published: 9 September 2026 on Substack
🟣 Apple Podcasts | ⏱️ 3 min
Key Takeaways
Noble says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is "either showing his true incompetence or is lying" about bonds
He says he has been bearish on bonds "for as long as I can remember," and flagged this leg of the move after Bessent's comments on 19 August
He likens Bessent to Norman Lamont, the UK chancellor whose defense of the pound collapsed on Black Wednesday
He says Bessent is "a hedge fund guy with a mediocre track record" being treated by the market as an authority Noble thinks he hasn't earned
1. The Bessent "Epic Fade"
Noble said he called out Bessent "a couple weeks ago on the 19th of August when he opened his mouth," and that the bond market has moved his way ever since: "Yields are around 465. They're now 485 on the 10 year." He credited himself and his followers with catching the move early: "Everyone's now followed us. We called it first."
"Bessent is either showing his true incompetence or is lying. I don't know what it is."
"He's the modern-day equivalent of Norman Lamont." Lamont was the UK chancellor of the exchequer whose defense of the pound's currency peg collapsed on Black Wednesday in 1992
His trading rule from here: "The more he opens his mouth, the more you should short bonds"
"He's a hedge fund guy with a mediocre track record, and people are treating him like he knows what he's doing." Noble called the result "epic fade" and added, "History will not be kind to Scott Bessent. Norman Lamont, please call your office"
Bonus Insights
Noble closed the clip pivoting to his own weekly product, Pod Street Week, naming Eric Nuttall, David Rosenberg, Patrick Oddoux and Dan Niles among the guests it summarized that week, and telling viewers to "turn off Mohamed El-Erian and Cathie Wood and the Kobeissi Letter" by comparison
On his own picks, he said: "I think we've had 24 picks. 23 of them have gone up," without detailing the methodology behind that count
Noble's bottom line is that every Bessent public comment on rates or bonds should be read as a signal to sell them, not to follow him.
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