James "Jim" Grant (born 26 July 1946) is an American writer and publisher. He founded ''Grant's Interest Rate Observer'', a twice-monthly journal of the financial markets published since 1983. He has also written several books on finance and history.

Personal life

Grant served as a

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

Gunner's mate The United States Navy and United States Coast Guard occupational rating of gunner's mate (GM) is a designation given by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) to enlisted sailors who either satisfactorily complete initial Gunner's Mate "A" sch ...

, graduated from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, and received a master's degree in International relations from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He is married to Patricia Kavanagh, M.D., a

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

, and lives in

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south ...

. They have four children.

Journalism

He began his journalistic career at the

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

in 1972 and joined the staff of

Barron's ''Barron's'' (stylized in all caps) is an American weekly magazine and newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921. Founded as ''Barron's National Financial Weekly'' in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–19 ...

in 1975. He founded ''Grant's'' in 1983. Success was slow. "A critic complained that Money of the Mind, my ... history of American finance, was like an account of the interstate highway system written from the point of view of the accidents", Grant wrote in ''Minding Mr. Market'' (1993). "The same might be said, both fairly and unfairly, of Grant's. Where most observers of the 1980s emphasized the rewards, we dwelled mainly on the risks. In the junk bond, in the reckless patterns of

bank lending In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the debt ( ...

, in the dementia of Japanese finance, in the riot of the Treasury's borrowing, we saw not the

bull market A market trend is a perceived tendency of the financial markets to move in a particular direction over time. Analysts classify these trends as ''secular'' for long time-frames, ''primary'' for medium time-frames, and ''secondary'' for short time ...

s of today but the comeuppance of tomorrow." However, the publication's signature

skepticism Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

served it, and its readers, better in the 2000s. ''Mr. Market Miscalculates'' (2008), a collection of Grant's articles published over the preceding 10 years, elicited an appreciative review in the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''. John Authers wrote of the staff of the FT: "If Grant could see what was happening this clearly ... and warn of it in a well-circulated publication, how did the world's financial regulators fail to avert the crisis before it became deadly, and how did the rest of us continue to make the irrational investing decisions that make Mr. Market behave the way he does?" Grant received the 2015 Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in business journalism.

Books

Grant is the author of ''Money of the Mind'' (1992), ''The Trouble with Prosperity'' (1996), ''John Adams: Party of One'' (2005), ''Mr. Speaker: The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster'' (2011), and ''The Forgotten Depression'' (2014) among other works. His most recent publication is ''Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian'' (2019), a biography of

Walter Bagehot Walter Bagehot ( ; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was an English journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race. He is known for co-founding the ''National Review'' in 1855 ...

, the influential English banker, economic and political writer, and editor of the ''Economist'', whose ideas about central banking informed the U.S. Federal Reserve's response to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

2012 election

During Representative

Ron Paul Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977, and again from 1979 to 1985, as well as for Texas' ...

's 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, he named Grant as his likely candidate for

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

to replace

Ben Bernanke Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist who served as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. After leaving the Federal Reserve, he was appointed a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Insti ...

whose term expired in 2014.

Bibliography

*1983: ''Bernard M. Baruch: The Adventures of a Wall Street Legend''
1997 paperback edition
*1992: ''Money of the Mind''
1994 paperback edition
*1993: ''Minding Mr. Market'', 2000 paperback edition *1996: ''The Trouble with Prosperity: A Contrarian's Tale of Boom, Bust, and Speculation'' *2005: ''John Adams: Party of One''
paperback edition
*2008: ''Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond'' *2011: ''Mr. Speaker!: The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster''
2012 paperback edition
*2014
''The Forgotten Depression''
*2019
''Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian''
ref>

References

External links

Grant's Interest Rate Observer website
*
C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Grant about ''Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, The Man Who Broke the Filibuster'', June 5, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, James American biographers American male biographers American financial writers Columbia University alumni Indiana University alumni Living people 1946 births Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award winners United States Navy sailors