RenMac breaks down a hawkish shift from the Fed and why higher real yields are reshaping market leadership beneath the surface. The team discusses Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent&#x27;s economic agenda, the rotation away from the Mag 7, mounting stress in private credit, the outlook for Iran and oil prices, and why improving market breadth is encouraging—but not yet an all-clear signal

RenMac Off-Script: Flying Blind

RenMac

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** RenMac

## Participants

- **Steve Duttaenhofer** (None)
- **Jeff deGraaf** (None)
- **Neil Dutta** (None)
- **Steve Pavlik** (None)

## Transcript

RenMac Off-Script originated as a weekly internal research meeting designed to summarize and discuss what happened in Washington, the markets, and the economic data over the past week. It was always intended to be and remains a free-flowing conversation with no discernible objective other than to extract the wisdom and opinion of our analysts and their expertise. This is a conversation among colleagues. Individual circumstances are unique and nuanced. Do not mistake these conversations for investment advice, because it's not.

Here we go. All right. Welcome to RenMac Off-Script, where we openly discuss markets, economics, policy, history, and life. It is Friday, June 26, 2026. I'm Steve Duttaenhofer. I'm Jeff deGraaf. I'm Neil Dutta. And I'm Steve Pavlik. Neil, Admiral McRaven would be very proud of you for making your bed in the background. Good work. Well, thank you. Thank you for pointing it out.

Where are you? Before we started recording. Yeah, where are you? I'm in Atlanta. Hotlanta. There you go. Well, let's start with you then, because we had a dinner this past week, Economics Club in New York, with Secretary Besant, who I think had some interesting comments with respect to what the Fed is likely to do going forward. So why don't you highlight some of the things that you picked up from the dinner?

Well, I mean, he centered the speech around sort of economic sovereignty and how that ties into national security. So I thought that was interesting. So I thought that was interesting. That was sort of the crux of the speech. I think that was a lot of the things that I think that was a lot of people who are going forward to.

And he basically said that Warsh will do what he wants and he'll balance the risk between growth and inflation. So I didn't really hear much kind of, you know, rhetoric like too late or anything like that, like we heard a few months ago. And, you know, I mean, I thought that was sort of revealing in the Q&A. But, yeah, I thought it was a well attended kind of event.

And I thought, you know, Besant, Treasury Secretary Besant is, I think, and I don't think it's particularly controversial to say so. He's probably the best spokesman in terms of rationalizing Trumpism, at least economically, sort of linking the, you know, the idea that we believe in strong alliances. But, you know, there are certain things that are no longer negotiable, the idea that America needs to produce, be able to produce its needs.

And he listed off a host of different industries, whether that's A.I., semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding. I thought that was interesting. And another thing that stood out to me was that, you know, this is about writing the rules for the next economy. We're not we're no longer in an environment where trade is defined by moving goods acr...

RenMac Off-Script: Flying Blind

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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RenMac Off-Script: Flying Blind

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.