Yesterday we talked about the investment opportunities brought about by rising interest rates. Today we shift our focus to the very phenomenon of interest rates courtesy of PBS' Wealthtrack program as Consuelo Mack interviews interest rate expert James Grant about what's going on in the current environment. Hope everyone had a great weekend. More sunny days ahead.
November 9, 2023
Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,
History matters as does historical perspective. This weekend’s guest is rich in both. He is James Grant, financial thought leader, historian, Founder and Editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal he launched in 1983, forty years ago this year.
As he wrote at the time, its stated editorial mission was to: “.... keep its readers abreast of the things that cause rates to rise and fall and of the forces that tilt the world toward inflation and deflation.”
When Grant launched his journal in 1983, 30-year Treasuries yielded 12% - they are now around 5%, 3-month Treasury bills were 9% - they are now above 5%, Paul Volcker was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the greatest bull market in bonds was just underway.
“Interest Rates Rise” was the headline of the page one article of the First Edition of Grant’s. As he explained in his 40th Anniversary anthology: “Rates, in fact, continued to rise for the next six months before beginning the epochal decline that would carry them, in not quite four decades, to lows unseen in four millennia.”
In this weekend’s episode, Grant will explain the history of bond market cycles and why the dramatic rise in interest rates that began in March of last year might have ushered in a prolonged bear market in bonds with all of the attendant investment ramifications including a silver lining for savers.
In our online EXTRA feature, Jim Grant will share the story behind the creation of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. It began with a dinner with his wife at the famed Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel.
If you miss the show on public television, you can watch it on our website over the weekend, along with our past programs. The WEALTHTRACK podcast is also available on SoundCloud as well as iTunes and Spotify.
Have a lovely weekend. Happy Veterans Day to all who have served in the armed forces of this great country. Make the week ahead a healthy, profitable and productive one!
Best regards,
Consuelo
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