A Mighty Purpose


Book Description

The inspiring story of how the iconoclastic humanitarian Jim Grant succeeded in saving the lives of tens of millions of children through his extraordinary ability to win over world leaders Nicholas Kristof hailed Jim Grant as a man who “probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao, and Stalin combined.” Nominated by President Jimmy Carter to head UNICEF, Grant ran the United Nations agency from 1980 to 1995 and became the most powerful advocate for children the world has ever seen. To ensure that even children trapped by war received health care and immunizations, he brokered humanitarian ceasefires by exploiting the political self-interests of presidents and warlords alike. Grant at first met fierce resistance at the United Nations and in his own organization, and some thought his ideas were crazy and dangerous. But as he kept toppling obstacle after obstacle, he eventually won over even his most stubborn detractors. Grant spearheaded a historic surge in worldwide childhood immunization rates and launched a movement that profoundly altered the face of global health and international development.




Mr. Market Miscalculates


Book Description

"Wall Street newsletters come and go, but Grant's Interest Rate Observer has gone on and on. It has enlightened, enriched and provoked Wall Streets most successful investors every two weeks for the past 25 years. Its thousands of readers treasure it not only for its insights and analysis, but also for its clarity and wit." "This special anniversary collection of Grant's articles traces the tumultuous events of Americas bubble era: from the dot-com boom of the late 1990s to the house-price levitation of the early 2000s to the subsequent worldwide mortgage collapse. The essays contained herein make up no armchair history, but a living record comprised in the heat of events. They chronicle what happened and why - and what, in editor Grant's best judgment, was likely to happen down the road."--BOOK JACKET.




The Forgotten Depression


Book Description

"By the publisher of the prestigious Grant's Interest Rate Observer, an account of the deep economic slump of 1920-21 that proposes, with respect to federal intervention, "less is more." This is a free-market rejoinder to the Keynesian stimulus applied by Bush and Obama to the 2007-09 recession, in whose aftereffects, Grant asserts, the nation still toils. James Grant tells the story of America's last governmentally-untreated depression; relatively brief and self-correcting, it gave way to the Roaring Twenties. His book appears in the fifth year of a lackluster recovery from the overmedicated downturn of 2007-2009. In 1920-21, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most twenty-first century economists would call backward. Confronted with plunging prices, wages, and employment, the government balanced the budget and, through the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates. No "stimulus" was administered, and a powerful, job-filled recovery was under way by late in 1921. In 1929, the economy once again slumped--and kept right on slumping as the Hoover administration adopted the very policies that Wilson and Harding had declined to put in place. Grant argues that well-intended federal intervention, notably the White House-led campaign to prop up industrial wages, helped to turn a bad recession into America's worst depression. He offers the experience of the earlier depression for lessons for today and the future. This is a powerful response to the prevailing notion of how to fight recession. The enterprise system is more resilient than even its friends give it credit for being, Grant demonstrates"--




Money of the Mind


Book Description

The 1980s witnessed a lemming-like rush into the sea of debt on the part of the American industrial and financial communities, with consequences we are only beginning to appreciate. But the speculative frenzy of the eighties didn't just happen. It was the culmination of a long cycle of slow relaxation of credit practices--the subject of James Grant's brilliant, clear-eyed history of American finance. Two long-running trends converged in the 1980s to create one of our greatest speculative booms: the democratization of credit and the socialization of risk. At the turn of the century, it was almost impossible for the average working person to get a loan. In the 1980s, it was almost impossible to refuse one. As the pace of lending grew, the government undertook to bear more and more of the creditors' risk--a pattern, begun in the Progressive era, which reached full flower in the "conservative" administration of Ronald Reagan. Based on original scholarship as well as firsthand observation, Grant's book puts our recent love affair with debt in an entirely fresh, often chilling, perspective. The result is required--and wickedly entertaining--reading for everyone who wants or needs to understand how the world really works. "A brilliantly eccentric, kaleidoscopic tour of our credit lunacy. . . . A splendid, tooth-gnashing saga that should be savored for its ghoulish humor and passionately debated for its iconoclastic analysis. It is a fitting epitaph to the credit binge of the '80s."--Ron Chernow, The Wall Street Journal.




Jim Grant


Book Description

Jim Grant was Executive Director of UNICEF from 1980 to 1995, during which period he launched a worldwide child survival and development revolution. The practical result was that by 1995, 25 million children were alive who would otherwise have died, with millions more living with better health and nutrition. This volume contains eight articles by Jim Grant's close colleagues which draw out the lessons of Grant's vision and leadership, which have relevance in many other contexts




Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian


Book Description

“Excellent… and written in a gripping style.” —The Economist During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of one Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, and inventor of the Treasury bill, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that—decades later—inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Persuasive and precocious, he was also the esteemed editor of the Economist. He offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, held sway in political circles, made as many high-profile friends as enemies, and won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, James Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.




John Adams: Party of One


Book Description

A biography of the revolutionary, founding father, and second president of the United States explores his origins as a son of Massachusetts who crafted himself into an uncompromisingly ethical politician and social reformer.




Adobe Flats


Book Description

It starts as a mission to honor a fallen comrade. It becomes a mission for justice. On a personal journey to return an heirloom to the father of his former colleague and lover, Jim Grant isn’t sure what to expect in the dusty flatlands of Texas. He isn’t expecting trouble from the local cowboys, but trouble is what he gets. With instincts honed from years as a covert operator, Grant is a small town’s last hope against an army of good old boys and a violent kingpin who has everything to lose. And if he manages to keep his boots above ground he may just be able to lay to rest the memory of a soldier who died too soon. Praise for the books by Colin Campbell: “Very real. And very good.” —Lee Child The Resurrection Man Series “A cop with a sharp eye, keen mind, and a lion’s heart.” —Reed Farrel Coleman “Campbell writes smart, rollercoaster tales with unstoppable forward momentum and thrilling authenticity. The Resurrection Man series is a blast.” —Nick Petrie “Grim and gritty and packed with action and crackling dialogue.” —Kirkus Review, for Jamaica Plain “Action packed. Tough-as-nails. The pages fly like the bullets, fistfights and one-liners that make this one of my favourite books of the year. Top stuff!” —Matt Hilton “Campbell’s wry maverick Grant never fails to entertain.” —Kirkus Review, for Montecito Heights “Sets up immediately and maintains a breakneck pace throughout. Its smart structure and unrelenting suspense will please Lee Child fans.” —Library Journal Review “Harkens back to the gritty action series of the 70s and 80s, with a stylish noir voice.” —Kirkus Reviews, for Adobe Flats “Crackerjack entertainment: taut, gritty and full of devilish twists.” —Kirkus Reviews, for Snake Pass “Hard-hitting action and Grant’s dry wit make this a rollicking good time.” —Library Journal Review “Campbell’s Beacon Hill is a great tale of violence and intrigue, stretching across the Atlantic and back again. In it, Jim Grant proves he is the real deal.” —Reed Farrel Coleman The UK Crime Novels “This is police procedural close-up and personal. A strong debut with enough gritty realism to make your eyes water, and a few savage laughs along the way.” —Reginald Hill, for Through the Ruins of Midnight “An excellent story well told. A mixture of The Choirboys meets Harry Bosch.” —Michael Jecks “Campbell’s 30 years as a Yorkshire policeman infuse this unusual procedural with grim reality and the harsh humor that helps keep the coppers sane.” —Kirkus Review, for Blue Knight White Cross “Every detail feels authentic, and Campbell’s dark, muscular prose suggests the best pulp writers of the ’50s.” —Kirkus Review, for Northern Ex




Bernard M. Baruch


Book Description

This biography of Bernard Baruch considered to be renowned as the definitive story about the notorious financial wizard and presidential advisor. Baruch's political policies are discussed briefly, and James Grant includes a detailed account of Baruch's trading and investment gains and losses.




The Trouble with Prosperity


Book Description

In this updated paperback edition, Jim Grant spins a series of revealing, interlocking stories from little-known Wall Street lore. The historic episodes of boom and bust wittily recounted by Grant offer cautionary lessons for every investor.




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