Minding Mister Market: Ten Years on Wall Street with Grant's Interest Rate Observer.

Still haven't purchased that Christmas present" Looking for a good book to curl up with over the holidays? Then hie thee to a bookstore, and get a copy of James Grant's "Minding Mister Market: Ten Years on Wall Street with Grant's Interest Rate Observer" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 424 pp., $27.50).

Readers of this column know how greatly I admire Grant and his fort-nightly journal, so my advice should come as no surprise. "Minding Mister Market" collects Grant's journalism since he founded his magazine 10 years ago. It is not unusual for journalists to try and get their work collected between hard covers. What is unusual is for the result to be as good as it is here.

James Grant is the finest business journalist writing today. I have written before of his general writing prowess, and by qualifying it here I do not mean to denigrate Grant, but to extol his virtuosity. Last year I reviewed his history of credit in the United States, "Money of the Mind," for The American Spectator, and explained: "The business journalist must first master a language that is in most cases designed to elude comprehension, then translate it into something approximating English for the daily consumption of readers." This Grant does, writing about a subject that confounds most People, in spades.

Grant writes clearly, with style, and with a very dry sense of humor. Most business journalists do not define their terms; Grant defines every term he uses, and his definitions are models of grace. What is more, his work is based on good sense and keen intelligence. There is style and there is substance, and it all makes for good reading.

Grant writes in the introduction to his latest book: "I had left the staff of Barron's in the summer of 1983, believing the world needed something else to read. In particular, I thought, it could use a ... publication devoted to interest rates and related financial topics. I wouldn't try to forecast interest rates because I couldn't. I would merely provide clarification."

He goes on: "Grant's developed a niche in truth-telling, which sometimes amounted to nothing more than quoting the hair-raising legal language of the bond prospectuses that described (in accordance with the law) a specific emission of speculative-grade debt.'"

The man was lugubrious during the roaring '80s, a Cassandra among those who believed that junk was as good as gold. History has proven how often he was right, although at the time, he notes, "Day by day and month by month we bore the stigma of being wrong. I felt it keenly and from time to time doubted not only my sanity but also my ability to do arithmetic and read simple declarative sentences for comprehension." He was, as I said, often right. He is also big enough here to annotate when he was wrong; the annotations, as they so often are in historical documentary works of this kind, are among the most fascinating parts of this collection.

"Minding Mister Market" is divided into sections, collecting profiles, pieces on banks good and bad, "adventures in leverage," and "the rise and fall of debt," among others. Consider, for example, the delightfully titled "Napoleon Advances on Moscow," about the Campeau Corp. and its owner's spectacular plans and stunning indebtedness. Grant disposes of this magnifico in five paragraphs; footnote announces: "Campeau Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection on January 15, 1990."

The '80s were, one is swiftly reminded, gaudy days. We are all the better for Grant having been there to chronicle them, as "Minding Mister Market" shows.

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