James Grant

But.

I feel like there's a parallel there to Jim Grant just starting Grant's Interest Rate Observer as like a Xeroxed thing.

Yeah.

It's

Exactly.

And the last time that we did that, in the U.S. anyway, is a book by James Grant called The Forgotten Depression.

It's a fantastic book, and he talks about the recession, we would now call it, but back then it was called depression, that came out of World War I, right? So all the companies were retooling.

The U.S. economy was basically this giant export platform feeding into Europe, and Europe was selling the family heirlooms so they could kill each other.

And I read a lot of great stuff and three analysts come to mind.

I read Jim Grant's latest edition of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, which I think is a must read for everybody in finance, whether or not you care about interest rates or gold, not the least of which because Jim's a fantastic writer and I appreciate the craft.

This concept of 30-year bonds being certificates of confiscation, nobody really believes that 5% yield is enough to protect your purchasing power over 30 years.

And who are the marginal buyers of these bonds is an interesting question.

Find out at OpportunityShowcase.com.

Hey, I'm Jim Grant.

I am the editor and indeed the founder of Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

And you, ladies and gentlemen, you lucky people, are listening to The Real Estate Guys.

I've talked about being out of 60-40 portfolio for years.

I will tell you, you know, I used to have Jim Grant on a lot more.

He called it three or four years ago.

And the thing is, we got so comfortable because we had a 40-year bull market in bonds.

How has the world changed in the world's financial markets since 9-11?

Well, Jim Grant, who's a, curmudgeonly kind of guy likes to always say that the sum total of math and science is cumulative.

In other words, we keep adding on to it every year.

But when it comes to banking and finance, it's always cyclical.

So it has a role, but beware the buyer.

Look, I think we live in a world right now in which the level of lack of trust, right, where Jim Grant, I think, still has the best definition of gold as one over N, where N is faith in central bankers.

And so as that faith falls, the multiple of gold rises, right? Gold is expensive relative to everything else on almost any reasonable metric, right? People will point to the fact that gold, an ounce of gold could buy a fine men's suit.

I buy fine men's suits.

Most mediums of exchange that we use are abstractions, floating abstractions.

Our mutual friend, Doug Casey, once said that the dollar is an IOU, nothing.

And the Euro is a who owes you nothing.

Yeah.

It's the other part in a transaction.

When you go to the grocery to buy bananas, the grocer is the counterparty.

Right, or if you lend money to your friend, they'll pay you back.

That's the counterparty.