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Bessent on CNBC: Fed Policy, Iran Economic Blockade, and the Economy

October 28, 2026 · U.S. Department of the Treasury · 0:12:43

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh had made, in his assessment, a great start, and that both he and President Trump had great confidence in Warsh’s ability to balance the Fed’s dual mandate of full employment and price stability. The interview followed a Fed decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

Bessent argued that much of the current inflation pressure stems from an energy supply shock rather than factors the Fed can control, warning against repeating what he called one of the biggest central-bank policy errors in history — the European Central Bank’s 2008 rate increase during a similar energy shock. He said the Atlanta Fed was projecting third-quarter GDP growth above 3 percent and that he expected a strong number.

On Iran, Bessent said the economic blockade administered in part through his office was working: he stated that Iran was effectively exporting zero barrels of oil, that its currency had collapsed, and that Treasury’s internal estimates showed the Iranian economy could shrink by as much as 25 percent from March to March since the blockade began. He said Iran’s proxies, including the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah, were seeing their funding dry up, though he offered no timeline for bringing Iran to negotiations.

Bessent also said Treasury was monitoring lower-tier credit and AI-related debt but did not see a systemic problem, expressed concern about a lack of growth in Europe, and said the administration’s trade agreements were largely settled apart from the Mexico-Canada renegotiation, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer handling a pending Section 301 study.

Why it matters

The interview is a compact statement of the Treasury Secretary’s economic case: that inflation is supply-driven, that maximum economic pressure is collapsing Iran’s economy, and that the tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill plus settled trade deals underpin continued growth.

Scoreboard watch

Bessent cited an internal estimate that Iran’s economy could shrink up to 25 percent March-to-March and a projection of above-3-percent third-quarter GDP growth; both figures are checkable against subsequent data releases.

Sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Secretary Bessent on CNBC’s Closing Bell: Overtime”, 2026-10-28 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-28). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.