James Grant Quotes

• To suppose that the value of a common stock is determined purely by a corporation's earnings discounted by the relevant interest rates and adjusted for the marginal tax rate is to forget that people have burned witches, gone to war on a whim, risen to the defense of Joseph Stalin and believed Orson Welles when he told them over the radio that the Martians had landed.

  James Grant

  Business, War, People

  16 Copy quote

• Successful investing is about having people agree with you ... later.

  James Grant

  Successful, People, Investing

  16 Copy quote

• Progress is cumulative in science and engineering, but cyclical in finance.

  James Grant

  Engineering, Progress, Banking

  15 Copy quote

• Central banks have gotten out of the central banking business and into the central planning business, meaning that they are devoted to raising up-if they can-economic growth and employment through the dubious means of suppressing interest rates and printing money. The nice thing about gold is that you can't print it.

  James Grant

  Money, Nice, Mean

  15 Copy quote

• [C]apitalism without financial failure is not capitalism at all, but a kind of socialism for the rich.

  James Grant

  Financial, Kind, Socialism

  "A plague on the Wall Street casinos" by Diane Francis, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 17, 2008.

  16 Copy quote

• In general, markets know more than the people who write about them.

  James Grant

  Writing, People, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• In almost every walk of life, people buy more at lower prices; in the stock market they seem to buy more at higher prices.

  James Grant

  Money, People, Investing

  13 Copy quote

• The Fed can change how things look, not how things are

  James Grant

  Looks, Feds

  8 Copy quote

• Every debt is ultimately paid, if not by the debtor, then eventually by the creditor.

  James Grant

  Debtors, Creditors, Paid

  10 Copy quote

• To me the gold price takes the form of a very uncomplicated formula, and all you have to do is divide one by 'n.' And 'n', I'm glad you ask, 'n' is the world's trust in the institution of paper money and in the capacity of people like Ben Bernanke to manage it. So the smaller 'n', the bigger the price. One divided by a receding number is the definition of a bull market.

  James Grant

  Numbers, People, Gold

  "Jim Grant: America Will Resolve Her Debt By Returning To The Gold Standard" by Gus Lubin, www.businessinsider.com. April 14, 2011.

  13 Copy quote

• The art of banking is always to balance the risk of a run with the reward of a profit. The tantalizing factor in the equation is that riskier borrowers pay higher interest rates. Ultimate safety - a strongbox full of currency - would avail the banker nothing. Maximum risk - a portfolio of loans to prospective bankrupts at usurious interest rates - would invite disaster. A good banker safely and profitably treads the middle ground.

  James Grant

  Running, Art, Safety

  9 Copy quote

• Credit is money of the mind.

  James Grant

  Mind, Credit

  7 Copy quote

• Growth at an exceptional rate is a red flag in banking. It is hard enough to manage an ordinary bank; to control a sprouting weed is well-nigh impossible. If loans are expanding too quickly, the lending officers have probably been saying 'yes' too frequently.

  James Grant

  Weed, Red Flags, Growth

  12 Copy quote

• Nothing beats a little cash in a bear market, of course, and the oldest form of cash is gold.

  James Grant

  Gold, Littles, Bears

  8 Copy quote

• The 1980s are to debt what the 1960s were to sex. The 1960s left a hangover. So will the 1980s.

  James Grant

  Sex, Hangover, Debt

  7 Copy quote

• I believe that there is an important kernel of truth in the idea that financial errors recur every other generation.

  James Grant

  Believe, Errors, Ideas

  9 Copy quote

• Debt is always repaid, either by the borrower or by the lender.

  James Grant

  Investing, Debt, Borrowers

  4 Copy quote

• Hope sustains life, but misplaced hope prolongs recessions.

  James Grant

  Misplaced, Recessions

  "Whistling Past the Economic Graveyard: The Audacity of Misplaced Hope" by Arianna Huffington, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 16, 2009.

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• It is an axiom nowadays that no bank fails for lack of capital; unprofitable lending is always the underlying cause.

  James Grant

  Banking, Causes, Failing

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• [T]he first bad bank loan was no doubt made around the time of the opening of the first bank.

  James Grant

  Doubt, Banking, Firsts

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• It's about bums on seats. If nobody wants to listen to what you are doing, it kind of defeats the purpose really, doesn't it?

  James Grant

  Purpose, Want, Kind

  7 Copy quote

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