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The Making of a Permabear: The Perils of Long-term Investing in a Short-term World
From the legendary investor renowned for his ability to spot bubbles comes a brilliant account of a storied career as well as a vivid history of the stock market over the last sixty years
Raised in a Yorkshire coal-mining town, Jeremy Grantham once won seven games of Monopoly in a single evening—he figured out the most efficient properties on the board and went all in. So begins the story of an iconoclastic investment career launched into the stratosphere by a few simple buy cheap, watch for bubbles, and stick to your guns when you know you’re right.
Deep curiosity about the history of markets kept Grantham one step ahead. He created one of the first index funds in the 1970s, pioneered quantitative investment in the 1980s, and embraced emerging markets before other firms saw their potential. Grantham became famous when he accurately predicted and sidestepped a series of bubbles, but he learned by painful experience why so few others “It is terrible business to blow the whistle on a major bull market.” His firm skyrocketed from $250 million to a peak of $155 billion in assets under management. But as his wealth grew, so did his concerns about the deficiencies of capitalism and the unfolding climate crisis. He decided—at the top of his game—to donate nearly all his wealth to environmental protection.
With wit that’s as cutting against himself as his critics, Grantham reveals how hunting for bargains requires understanding the inefficiencies of the market and the human behavior that drives it. When resisting the bull market of the late 1990s, Grantham lost clients in droves before his bearish call was vindicated. “The best ideas eventually come out on top,” he says, “but sadly there's no guarantee you won't go out of business waiting.” That you might lose your job for being right is at the root of the short-term thinking that dominates the investment world. Such thinking also has disastrous consequences for the planet and mankind's long-term future. Ultimately, Grantham offers a deeply human, often heretical, and quietly profound lens on investing today.
Raised in a Yorkshire coal-mining town, Jeremy Grantham once won seven games of Monopoly in a single evening—he figured out the most efficient properties on the board and went all in. So begins the story of an iconoclastic investment career launched into the stratosphere by a few simple buy cheap, watch for bubbles, and stick to your guns when you know you’re right.
Deep curiosity about the history of markets kept Grantham one step ahead. He created one of the first index funds in the 1970s, pioneered quantitative investment in the 1980s, and embraced emerging markets before other firms saw their potential. Grantham became famous when he accurately predicted and sidestepped a series of bubbles, but he learned by painful experience why so few others “It is terrible business to blow the whistle on a major bull market.” His firm skyrocketed from $250 million to a peak of $155 billion in assets under management. But as his wealth grew, so did his concerns about the deficiencies of capitalism and the unfolding climate crisis. He decided—at the top of his game—to donate nearly all his wealth to environmental protection.
With wit that’s as cutting against himself as his critics, Grantham reveals how hunting for bargains requires understanding the inefficiencies of the market and the human behavior that drives it. When resisting the bull market of the late 1990s, Grantham lost clients in droves before his bearish call was vindicated. “The best ideas eventually come out on top,” he says, “but sadly there's no guarantee you won't go out of business waiting.” That you might lose your job for being right is at the root of the short-term thinking that dominates the investment world. Such thinking also has disastrous consequences for the planet and mankind's long-term future. Ultimately, Grantham offers a deeply human, often heretical, and quietly profound lens on investing today.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published January 13, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 27, 2026
The core lesson is also its blind spot: being right at the wrong time is the same as being wrong. Stories are there but not the solution.
His strategy is multi-year mean reversion. Buy cheap, wait, get vindicated. But it never seriously asks: what if the mean itself has moved? Passive indexing, zero-cost information, tech platform economics, structural shifts in interest rates. These aren't noise. They're regime changes. They are treated as distractions rather than challenges.
Position sizing, the actual hard problem of contrarian investing, gets no attention. When do you go all in on a thesis that might take five years while clients leave after two? The interesting thinking/engineering is missing.
Finally the pivot to environmental philanthropy. His career shows markets punish long-term thinking but he asks those same markets to care about the planet on a 50-year horizon. You can't diagnose a system with a 30-second timeout and prescribe patience as the cure. Where is the incentive design? He skips from diagnosis to moral appeal, walking past the gap that matters most.
Skip it if you are already familiar with bubble timelines or expect solutions to the problems it raises.
His strategy is multi-year mean reversion. Buy cheap, wait, get vindicated. But it never seriously asks: what if the mean itself has moved? Passive indexing, zero-cost information, tech platform economics, structural shifts in interest rates. These aren't noise. They're regime changes. They are treated as distractions rather than challenges.
Position sizing, the actual hard problem of contrarian investing, gets no attention. When do you go all in on a thesis that might take five years while clients leave after two? The interesting thinking/engineering is missing.
Finally the pivot to environmental philanthropy. His career shows markets punish long-term thinking but he asks those same markets to care about the planet on a 50-year horizon. You can't diagnose a system with a 30-second timeout and prescribe patience as the cure. Where is the incentive design? He skips from diagnosis to moral appeal, walking past the gap that matters most.
Skip it if you are already familiar with bubble timelines or expect solutions to the problems it raises.
January 31, 2026
Grantham is a stock market investor, philanthropist, and advocate for doing something about global warming. His arguments for limiting economic growth and for fighting global warming are cogent, and may carry weight with audiences that listen to billionaires who understand business.
There are some good reminders for value investors in here about not going along with the bewildered herd. It was interesting how none of the pension funds and such that fired him during bubbles went back to him after the bubbles burst. This is a combination of the "déformation professionelle" and career risk of money managers; for them, it's better to be wrong with the crowd and lose their customers' money than to be right all alone. People are often irrational, and the market is very obviously inefficient at times, even though the conventional wisdom on Wall Street and among famous economists is the Efficient Market Hypothesis. Grantham is not really a "permabear." He's a value investor who cries wolf when he thinks things are overvalued. He's been right (albeit early) multiple times.
He seems to have honestly enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspects of investing, being an early developer of things like index funds, quant investing, etc. However, he leaves a clear impression that it is very sad and wasteful to have so many of our best and brightest go to work on Wall Street in a zero-sum industry that produces nothing but has negative externalities for the economy and the environment.
There are some good reminders for value investors in here about not going along with the bewildered herd. It was interesting how none of the pension funds and such that fired him during bubbles went back to him after the bubbles burst. This is a combination of the "déformation professionelle" and career risk of money managers; for them, it's better to be wrong with the crowd and lose their customers' money than to be right all alone. People are often irrational, and the market is very obviously inefficient at times, even though the conventional wisdom on Wall Street and among famous economists is the Efficient Market Hypothesis. Grantham is not really a "permabear." He's a value investor who cries wolf when he thinks things are overvalued. He's been right (albeit early) multiple times.
He seems to have honestly enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspects of investing, being an early developer of things like index funds, quant investing, etc. However, he leaves a clear impression that it is very sad and wasteful to have so many of our best and brightest go to work on Wall Street in a zero-sum industry that produces nothing but has negative externalities for the economy and the environment.
January 23, 2026
"4 stars" for being a very insightful book describing a lot of history of the investment industry in the last 60 years. "5 stars" for serious long term investors interested in gaining insights. He recounts the ups and downs in his career and how he became highly successful despite thinking like a contrarian and going against traditional investment industry professionals. Has invaluable insights on market bubbles for investors, traders and novices alike in the stock market, of particular interest in the current environment!!
Also has some very good points on preservation of the environment and on climate change as well. I do intend to find out more about his charitable Foundation [https://www.granthamfoundation.org/ ] and what they are doing.
Highly recommend the audio version of this book as it has been narrated by the author himself and it is almost like he is talking to you and recounting his experience and thoughts!!
Also has some very good points on preservation of the environment and on climate change as well. I do intend to find out more about his charitable Foundation [https://www.granthamfoundation.org/ ] and what they are doing.
Highly recommend the audio version of this book as it has been narrated by the author himself and it is almost like he is talking to you and recounting his experience and thoughts!!
August 4, 2026
In my finance bro era.
The economy is going to blow up soon, don’t be sleeping on it !!! Read the news please literally days ago the US and the Bank of Japan bailed out their entire country
The US is DESPERATE for bond buyers the interest rate is something like 5.25% GURANTEED return omg
Don’t fucking buy anything but bonds rn it’s way too late to invest in any tech stocks
Wait until it trends back to the norm - that’s the main point ab this book
Wonderful biography about one of the main founders of GMO, a pioneer of quant trading, and avid climate change activist— Jeremy grantham
Didn’t know anything about his but now I know everything about him, love me a biography
The Athenaeum always has great local picks in their main lobby
The economy is going to blow up soon, don’t be sleeping on it !!! Read the news please literally days ago the US and the Bank of Japan bailed out their entire country
The US is DESPERATE for bond buyers the interest rate is something like 5.25% GURANTEED return omg
Don’t fucking buy anything but bonds rn it’s way too late to invest in any tech stocks
Wait until it trends back to the norm - that’s the main point ab this book
Wonderful biography about one of the main founders of GMO, a pioneer of quant trading, and avid climate change activist— Jeremy grantham
Didn’t know anything about his but now I know everything about him, love me a biography
The Athenaeum always has great local picks in their main lobby
June 16, 2026
As background, I have a positive view of Jeremy Grantham because:
-GMO has had a good and systematized version of value for about 3 decades (and before that I think it was still good, just not systematized)
-About 10-15 years ago, I enjoyed and learned from his series of letters on possible commodity shortages
-He's done good work in the environmental space
This book was disappointing relative to my expectations, although not hugely so.
On the positive side, it was a nice walk through his history. He's been genuinely very early and influential in quite a few important things, including (a) indexing, (b) systematizing a value process, (c) combining value and momentum, (d) using "quality" as a metric, and (d) various environmental issues.
But he's also really over-confident that he's correct and dismissive of almost all academics and economists, thinks notions like "beta" are nonsense, etc. I can see arguments for his positions, but it wasn't just that I thought he was wrong, it's that his criticisms weren't very rigorous, it seems like 50% analysis and 50% name-calling. There were some correlation = causation errors, etc. This really brought the book down in what I felt like I could learn from it, since on topics with which I am less familiar I'm not as likely to notice where he's making weird assumptions or not mentioning other important data (to be clear, I think he's an honorable guy and is not purposely hiding important offsetting data, I just think my view of what constitutes important data pointing in the other direction could well be different than his), and so I just have to have a low belief overall.
There's an interesting section toward the end where he talks about current-ish markets and the idea that long-term mean reversion could be broken. He's been a strong believer in it his whole life, for example that index level (and single stock level) corporate profit margins mean revert since high margins attract new entrants or at least competition and new spending among existing players. Around 2018-9 he was saying things like "well this looks like a bubble on valuation metrics but it is not acting like a bubble in terms of frothy behavior and also maybe corporate profits won't mean revert because there's more monopoly power now plus more stock-based compensation plus strong market signals to return capital rather than invest it", which seems like a pretty good analysis to me. Also he noted that maybe he had gotten lulled into a false sense of "value always works in the end" just because 1935 to 2000 was effectively his training period and his production period and it happened to be a period with a lot of macro stability, which again seemed like a good thought to have. But then he progressed to "but by 2021 it was obviously just a bubble" and he kind of lost me.
Overall I'd say marginally worth reading conditional upon having an interest in the topic, but not otherwise
-GMO has had a good and systematized version of value for about 3 decades (and before that I think it was still good, just not systematized)
-About 10-15 years ago, I enjoyed and learned from his series of letters on possible commodity shortages
-He's done good work in the environmental space
This book was disappointing relative to my expectations, although not hugely so.
On the positive side, it was a nice walk through his history. He's been genuinely very early and influential in quite a few important things, including (a) indexing, (b) systematizing a value process, (c) combining value and momentum, (d) using "quality" as a metric, and (d) various environmental issues.
But he's also really over-confident that he's correct and dismissive of almost all academics and economists, thinks notions like "beta" are nonsense, etc. I can see arguments for his positions, but it wasn't just that I thought he was wrong, it's that his criticisms weren't very rigorous, it seems like 50% analysis and 50% name-calling. There were some correlation = causation errors, etc. This really brought the book down in what I felt like I could learn from it, since on topics with which I am less familiar I'm not as likely to notice where he's making weird assumptions or not mentioning other important data (to be clear, I think he's an honorable guy and is not purposely hiding important offsetting data, I just think my view of what constitutes important data pointing in the other direction could well be different than his), and so I just have to have a low belief overall.
There's an interesting section toward the end where he talks about current-ish markets and the idea that long-term mean reversion could be broken. He's been a strong believer in it his whole life, for example that index level (and single stock level) corporate profit margins mean revert since high margins attract new entrants or at least competition and new spending among existing players. Around 2018-9 he was saying things like "well this looks like a bubble on valuation metrics but it is not acting like a bubble in terms of frothy behavior and also maybe corporate profits won't mean revert because there's more monopoly power now plus more stock-based compensation plus strong market signals to return capital rather than invest it", which seems like a pretty good analysis to me. Also he noted that maybe he had gotten lulled into a false sense of "value always works in the end" just because 1935 to 2000 was effectively his training period and his production period and it happened to be a period with a lot of macro stability, which again seemed like a good thought to have. But then he progressed to "but by 2021 it was obviously just a bubble" and he kind of lost me.
Overall I'd say marginally worth reading conditional upon having an interest in the topic, but not otherwise
July 24, 2026
Grantham is a fun and sharp writer, so it's entertaining to simply read his regaling of his life story and perspective. I appreciate his humbleness: he openly admits that his success was the result of him getting into investing when he did and not the result of personal genius. He is also able to hold multiple perspectives on a topic simultaneously: decreasing population will be disastrous on a cultural and economic level but also highly beneficial environmentally.
The book is really 2 things. The first 2/3rds are the story of Grantham's life. You have the rise of his career and then his series of bearish holds. He spends considerable time on how painful the dotcom bubble was for him, where his firm lost half its clients. His funds ended up making more money than competitors who crashed along with the bubble burst, but that didn't prevent his clients from migrating away in spades in the years leading up to the burst.
The final 3rd of the book is Grantham talking about his "post-retirement" interests, which I found the most interesting. He talks a bit about how environmental degradation to date will have economic repercussions in the next 20-100 years and it's fairly harrowing. Soil degradation alone is quite scary. The final 3rd of the book felt a bit rushed to me, if I'm being honest. I would have liked a bit more depth and structure on his concerns about environmental decay and its downstream effects.
In the last 3rd fe also speaks briefly about how short-term profit maximization has eaten away at longer term investment in modern American corporations (as compared to the 70s). He describes the financialization of the US economy as non-beneficial (quite the opposite, in fact) and thus its recent expansion to 11% of GDP should be worrying.
The most satisfying argument he had in the book was something I've been thinking about a lot in recent years: how is it that the US economy has been continually growing in recent years and yet people don't measure as being happier or more satisfied? Grantham talks about how GDP can grow while quality of life factors decay: if I start charging a fee to walk through a park I increase GDP, even though I've reduced my community's quality of life; if we sue each other of more we increase GDP, even though a more litigious society is a higher anxiety one who is spending more on non-value producing legal fees.
More on the GDP thing: a belief that is somehow deeply rooted in the communal subconscious zeitgeist of Americans is that Europe is a stagnant place where nothing gets done because of excessive regulation; however, Grantham points out that French median real wages have increased by 180% in the past 50 years while American median wages have increased by 15%.
Fun book. Fascinating to get to hear financial and environmental analysis and forecasting from someone who's seen so many decades and thus has a much longer term perspective.
The book is really 2 things. The first 2/3rds are the story of Grantham's life. You have the rise of his career and then his series of bearish holds. He spends considerable time on how painful the dotcom bubble was for him, where his firm lost half its clients. His funds ended up making more money than competitors who crashed along with the bubble burst, but that didn't prevent his clients from migrating away in spades in the years leading up to the burst.
The final 3rd of the book is Grantham talking about his "post-retirement" interests, which I found the most interesting. He talks a bit about how environmental degradation to date will have economic repercussions in the next 20-100 years and it's fairly harrowing. Soil degradation alone is quite scary. The final 3rd of the book felt a bit rushed to me, if I'm being honest. I would have liked a bit more depth and structure on his concerns about environmental decay and its downstream effects.
In the last 3rd fe also speaks briefly about how short-term profit maximization has eaten away at longer term investment in modern American corporations (as compared to the 70s). He describes the financialization of the US economy as non-beneficial (quite the opposite, in fact) and thus its recent expansion to 11% of GDP should be worrying.
The most satisfying argument he had in the book was something I've been thinking about a lot in recent years: how is it that the US economy has been continually growing in recent years and yet people don't measure as being happier or more satisfied? Grantham talks about how GDP can grow while quality of life factors decay: if I start charging a fee to walk through a park I increase GDP, even though I've reduced my community's quality of life; if we sue each other of more we increase GDP, even though a more litigious society is a higher anxiety one who is spending more on non-value producing legal fees.
More on the GDP thing: a belief that is somehow deeply rooted in the communal subconscious zeitgeist of Americans is that Europe is a stagnant place where nothing gets done because of excessive regulation; however, Grantham points out that French median real wages have increased by 180% in the past 50 years while American median wages have increased by 15%.
Fun book. Fascinating to get to hear financial and environmental analysis and forecasting from someone who's seen so many decades and thus has a much longer term perspective.
June 4, 2026
Not a bad book but it got less interesting as he got more successful. Or possibly, I just got tired of him. The first half was very interesting. Read because I liked him on a podcast
- He grew up during WWII and post-war rationing. They only had "exotic" things like oranges at Christmas. Candy came off the ration list when he was nine, and on that day they drove around from shop to shop trying to buy whatever they could.
- He proposed to his wife over the phone. She was in the dining room with her family who did not approve (she was German and he was English), so she said "oh, yes. How are you?" so they wouldn't catch on
- He helped create one of the first index funds, pre-Bogle. Not because he thought the markets were efficient, but just to reduce fees.
- He called the tech bubble, but too early so he lost a lot of clients as the market continued to rip in 1998 and 1999. Then he seems to have overlearned that lesson and has been calling everything a bubble since
- The end of the book is about his environmental efforts. While they are probably doing a lot of good, it was written in a very doom and gloom manner and not very convincing, even to me who is predisposed to agree with him
- He grew up during WWII and post-war rationing. They only had "exotic" things like oranges at Christmas. Candy came off the ration list when he was nine, and on that day they drove around from shop to shop trying to buy whatever they could.
- He proposed to his wife over the phone. She was in the dining room with her family who did not approve (she was German and he was English), so she said "oh, yes. How are you?" so they wouldn't catch on
- He helped create one of the first index funds, pre-Bogle. Not because he thought the markets were efficient, but just to reduce fees.
- He called the tech bubble, but too early so he lost a lot of clients as the market continued to rip in 1998 and 1999. Then he seems to have overlearned that lesson and has been calling everything a bubble since
- The end of the book is about his environmental efforts. While they are probably doing a lot of good, it was written in a very doom and gloom manner and not very convincing, even to me who is predisposed to agree with him
March 2, 2026
This was really good. One of my most highlighted books ever upon first-read. Grantham is, without a doubt, a pioneer of our industry and a genius and this was well worth my time reading.
With that being said, he has been shouting from the rooftop about elevated valuations for over a decade now; staking his reputation on eventual mean reversion that just hasn't happened in a world where market-cap weighted passive indices continue to buy businesses with every incremental addition of capital at ever-increasing valuations irrespective of fundamentals. I side with Mike Green's thoughts here that rather than mean-reversion we are seeing mean-expansion, and will continue to see it until passive equity ownership reaches the breaking point.
Lastly, while I think Grantham is one of the great investing minds of the most recent generation, he frequently often comes across in public speaking, and occasionally in this book, as unwilling to lend any credence to any counterarguments that might be made. It could just be old age. Either way, it was a very good book.
With that being said, he has been shouting from the rooftop about elevated valuations for over a decade now; staking his reputation on eventual mean reversion that just hasn't happened in a world where market-cap weighted passive indices continue to buy businesses with every incremental addition of capital at ever-increasing valuations irrespective of fundamentals. I side with Mike Green's thoughts here that rather than mean-reversion we are seeing mean-expansion, and will continue to see it until passive equity ownership reaches the breaking point.
Lastly, while I think Grantham is one of the great investing minds of the most recent generation, he frequently often comes across in public speaking, and occasionally in this book, as unwilling to lend any credence to any counterarguments that might be made. It could just be old age. Either way, it was a very good book.
August 10, 2026
It's rare that my opinion of someone changes so distinctly after reading their autobiography. It's very in vogue to dismiss Jeremy Grantham as a gloomy old bear, for the denizens of X to decry his investment record and repeat that old trope "bulls make money, bears sound clever". But a closer review of his work, made easier through this autobiography, reveals someone who, far from being stuck in their ways and maladaptive, not only consistently reinvented himself through the course of his career but also was genuinely pioneering in the fields of factor-based investing and indexing. Indeed, his early track record was absolutely extraordinary as a result. It's fascinating to watch his journey from value stockpicking to overall quantitative asset allocator, each step so logical in its progression. There's much to learn about investing in extremity, whether through the absurd price moves in 1972 for small-cap value, 30-year Treasury yields at 15% in the 80s or even his memo on 'Investing When Terrified' in 2009.
April 9, 2026
A very interesting career with investment management. Grantham's early ideas around indexing and the shift from a successful fundamental investor to a macro investor and asset allocator stand out. I find his perspectives on regression to the mean for profitability interesting in today's tech monopoly world. Different this time? Perhaps the idea that most resonated with me was the comfort index model that they came up with at GMO - so true to the way market cycles work. The willingness and almost joy of standing out from the herd is admirable but also probably cost GMO being a top tier firm in terms of assets and profits. Someone as smart as Grantham if he chose to play the 'career risk' game would have grown the firm into a giant. The end warnings about climate change and finite resources are even more depressing to contemplate in the geopolitical environment. Hopefully geothermal and AI work.
August 17, 2026
Genius contrarian, caveat emptor 5/5
For the price of two pints down the pub there is a lot of investment history and wisdom in this book and overall it was simply a pleasure to read. It's hard to distil a lifetime of investing into 400 pages, however Jeremy has done a great job. He covers his investment journey and key market inflection points over the last 60 years, the history of GMO and their funds, and observations on patient, long term, contrarian investing (in spite of emotionally driven and irrational markets). It’s probably of more interest to those in the asset management industry than the casual retail investor - so if you loaded up on GameStop in 2021 this might not be for you!
By his own admission he was good at judgement and research, but not so great at implementation. And this was a thread through much of the book, where he and his colleagues were often right but just too early (the curse of the value investor). How much of his thinking is still relevant in today’s momentum driven markets? There is a mea culpa that he’d have made more money for clients if he’d adopted a shorter investment horizon, however I’d like to have read a deeper analysis around this.
Congratulations to him for an outstanding business career and for amassing a reported $2bn fortune. This was earned on the back of ‘capitalism’ though, so the two chapters on the world’s big problems of overpopulation, overconsumption and climate change will certainly rub some readers up the wrong way. That said, I do agree with his sentiment and we should all be trying to leave a habitable earth for the grandkids.
Jeremy’s writing is lucid, humble and breezy, and there are plenty of gems… ‘most investors just extrapolate today forever’, ‘economists are idiots’, ‘investment management is a trivial activity’. On the latter, he has some astute observations about how fund managers often prioritise their career and the firms they work for before maximising performance for clients.
This is up there as one of the best investment memoirs I’ve read and I highly recommend it.
N.B Check out any of his recent podcasts to hear his views on the current AI bubble and SpaceX IPO’ing at 100x sales.
For the price of two pints down the pub there is a lot of investment history and wisdom in this book and overall it was simply a pleasure to read. It's hard to distil a lifetime of investing into 400 pages, however Jeremy has done a great job. He covers his investment journey and key market inflection points over the last 60 years, the history of GMO and their funds, and observations on patient, long term, contrarian investing (in spite of emotionally driven and irrational markets). It’s probably of more interest to those in the asset management industry than the casual retail investor - so if you loaded up on GameStop in 2021 this might not be for you!
By his own admission he was good at judgement and research, but not so great at implementation. And this was a thread through much of the book, where he and his colleagues were often right but just too early (the curse of the value investor). How much of his thinking is still relevant in today’s momentum driven markets? There is a mea culpa that he’d have made more money for clients if he’d adopted a shorter investment horizon, however I’d like to have read a deeper analysis around this.
Congratulations to him for an outstanding business career and for amassing a reported $2bn fortune. This was earned on the back of ‘capitalism’ though, so the two chapters on the world’s big problems of overpopulation, overconsumption and climate change will certainly rub some readers up the wrong way. That said, I do agree with his sentiment and we should all be trying to leave a habitable earth for the grandkids.
Jeremy’s writing is lucid, humble and breezy, and there are plenty of gems… ‘most investors just extrapolate today forever’, ‘economists are idiots’, ‘investment management is a trivial activity’. On the latter, he has some astute observations about how fund managers often prioritise their career and the firms they work for before maximising performance for clients.
This is up there as one of the best investment memoirs I’ve read and I highly recommend it.
N.B Check out any of his recent podcasts to hear his views on the current AI bubble and SpaceX IPO’ing at 100x sales.
August 14, 2026
Jeremy Grantham’s newly published memoir “The Making of a Permabear: The Perils of Long-Term Investing in a Short-Term World” is good but dubious in some regards (or rather disregards). He seems to be pretty confident about his assessments and predictions about the markets and the world in general, which is always a red flag to me—as with Václav Smil and similar authors. On the other hand, it’s an honest recollection by an experienced fund manager, with bits of accumulated wisdom, and it is a book worth reading.
Also, I generally agree with Grantham’s take on the AI bubble formation thesis as outlined in his recent paper “Valuing AI: Extreme Bubble, New Golden Era, or Both” published on the GMO website. I recommend reading it if you are interested in investing under current conditions.
Also, I generally agree with Grantham’s take on the AI bubble formation thesis as outlined in his recent paper “Valuing AI: Extreme Bubble, New Golden Era, or Both” published on the GMO website. I recommend reading it if you are interested in investing under current conditions.
February 21, 2026
One of the better memoirs by a Wall Street big shot that I've read. Grantham writes with a nice, wry sense of humor which really adds to his memoir. Grantham is a contrarian who has his own investing views and sticks to them no matter the pain and stress it causes him and his firm. I particularly enjoyed sections discussing his schooling, building his business, and the trials and tribulations of market bubbles. Recommended for a beginning stock market investor who wants to learn how to invest in the market. But also recommended for anyone who wants to read about the interesting experiences of a Wall Street giant and lifelong investing contrarian.
April 8, 2026
Grantham has always been an admired contrarian, and his ability to foresee reversions to the mean have been impressive (if not timely). The book is an entertaining backstory of his investment career.
The book also smacks of hypocrisy to me as Grantham eschews the global destruction he says are inherent to capitalism (he’s probably correct), plus laments the social inequities of the world; yet all the while he has grown fabulously wealthy from the former and is unwilling to divest of his assets towards the latter (though his foundation has).
The book also smacks of hypocrisy to me as Grantham eschews the global destruction he says are inherent to capitalism (he’s probably correct), plus laments the social inequities of the world; yet all the while he has grown fabulously wealthy from the former and is unwilling to divest of his assets towards the latter (though his foundation has).
February 26, 2026
4 stars for the long term view of the stock market (gives a bit too much importance to too sophisticated models with hindsight bias).
3 stars for the climate change views (identifies the problem correctly, but then goes on a slippery slope of opinions converted into facts about solutions).
2 stars for the health views (clearly above his pay grade, spends too much time majoring the minors with a fearmongering speech).
3 stars for the climate change views (identifies the problem correctly, but then goes on a slippery slope of opinions converted into facts about solutions).
2 stars for the health views (clearly above his pay grade, spends too much time majoring the minors with a fearmongering speech).
August 12, 2026
This is a very dense financial book. Grantham has had a long history of investing and running a business and foundation. I really enjoyed learning about both. It’s very dense and not written for those without a basic knowledge of economics. This was probably the slowest that I’ve ready any book in a while but I thought it was full of a lot of wisdom so I had to finish it, even though I was googling terms frequently.
February 23, 2026
The experience of very accomplished hedge fund manager is interesting, especially of a few times he failed. I didn't like the style it was written, like somebody just transcribed his talk. Also the last quarter of the book is devoted to his passion for environmental causes that he developed late in his life. The relevance to investing - which is how this book is presented - is questionable.
February 28, 2026
An interesting book about Grantham and the establishment of GMO—and, not least, about how bubbles start, develop, and burst. However, he seems almost obsessed with bubbles.
The final part of the book, where he turns to the need for ESG, the green transition, and the pursuit of growth, borders on the tedious. This section could easily have been left out.
March 28, 2026
The first half of the book was propulsive, clear, and thoughtful. The second half really dragged, especially as Grantham’s writing meandered from subject to subject. While I am glad I read the book, I eventually got very tired of his “I was right about everything, even when people thought I wasn’t” pose.
June 14, 2026
I acknowledge, the author is arrogant, his writing is haphazard and hard to follow, some of his points are anachronistic; this said, this is one of the must read financial history / investment books. The books gives an tremendous perspective about changes to the markets while noting their unchanging features. There are lessons to be learned and unlearned.
March 20, 2026
I have always appreciated that down to earth views of Mr. Grantham. And given that he is a man who has called the last two bubbles , all of which exploded spectacularly, he is a real breath of fresh air as the market climbs ever higher.
Ps yes he believes we are in the midst of one right now.
Ps yes he believes we are in the midst of one right now.
Want to Read
February 3, 2026The making of a Permabear — Jeremy Grantham’s guide to booms, busts and popping market bubbles - https://www.ft.com/content/51e3c51b-d... via @FT
May 6, 2026
3.5*
May 8, 2026
Very interesting history of Grantham’s start in the industry, building GMT and pioneering quant investing. However, gets very preachy about his political/religious beliefs throughout the last third.
May 14, 2026
Quite good-interesting view on markets and life from a value investor
June 10, 2026
A Fascinating History by a Seasoned and Principled Investor
An excellent read that kept me engaged and educated me about the financial environment in which I live. I Recommend.
An excellent read that kept me engaged and educated me about the financial environment in which I live. I Recommend.
July 10, 2026
More of a biography with very interesting details on the investment business and its development in the last 60 years.
If you're looking for investment advice and the new secret trick: not in here.
If you're looking for investment advice and the new secret trick: not in here.
July 19, 2026
Jeremy Grantham, the forgotten og quant
August 5, 2026
Enjoyed reading. Refreshingly down to earth and written like you sat down with him.
August 26, 2026
Really enjoyed the retelling of another well known professional investor’s career. Good to get another perspective from a contrarian, intellectual and deep thinker. Useful addition.
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