We Study Billionaires, Released on 10/25/25

In this episode, William Green chats with Jim Grant, famed editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer—a must-read publication for elite investment professionals. Here, Jim warns that a “major market top” is “in formation,” with irrational exuberance driving up prices for everything from stocks to Bitcoin to gold. Jim, a financial historian who has covered markets for over 50 years, says the current investment environment reminds him of perilous periods like the late-‘90s dotcom bubble. His advice? Proceed with extreme caution.

00:00:00 – Intro
00:10:30 – Why Jim Grant is fiercely skeptical about Bitcoin
00:18:02 – Why you should be wary of all the hype about Private Equity
00:31:19 – Why Jim expects the AI boom to end in “a panic & a crash.”
00:40:22 – Why even the shrewdest speculators never know when it’s time to sell
00:44:56 – What the Federal Reserve is likely to do with interest rates
00:49:49 – Why the dollar seems poised to continue losing value
01:02:19 – Why inflation will persist, fueled by perennial flaws in human nature
01:06:59 – Why Jim loves gold but is starting to worry about its meteoric rise
01:14:41 – Why he owns some bonds, despite his grim prognosis for this asset class
01:18:24 – How bull markets attract sleazy salesmen & bear markets clear them away
01:20:16 – What inspired him to write a new book about two 18th-century heroes
01:48:31 – How studying history helps him appreciate some benefits of modern life

James “Jim” Grant is an American writer and publisher and the founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the financial markets. He is the author , most recently, of The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself. Grant’s television appearances include “60 Minutes,” “The Charlie Rose Show,” Bloomberg TV, CNBC and other well-known financial news sources. His journalism has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including the “Financial Times”, “The Wall Street Journal” and “Foreign Affairs.”

  bitcoin, economics, gold, investing, stocks