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, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

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" schoo ...

, graduated from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

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

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "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 brain, the spinal c ...

, and lives in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn. They have four children.

Journalism

He began his journalistic career at the Baltimore Sun in 1972 and joined the staff of

Barron's Barron's or Barrons may refer to: *Barron's Educational Series, a publisher of books, as well as college entrance exam preparation classes and materials, now an imprint of Kaplan Test Prep ** B.E.S. Publishing, the former owner of Barron's * ''Barr ...

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 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 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-fram ...

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

skepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, 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 published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

''. 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 global financial crisis of 2007–2009.

2012 election

During Representative Ron Paul's 2012 U.S. Presidential campaign, he named Grant as his likely candidate for Chairman 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 of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

to replace Ben Bernanke 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