Welcome to Current Yield, Grand's Interest Rate Observer of the Air.

I'm Evan Lorenz filling in for Jim Grant, who's out temporarily with a laryngitis.

At the Dials is Harrison Waddill.

Joining me is Phil Grant, the publisher of Almost Daily Grants.

And today we have a special

guest, Mario Sabelli. Mario is the founder and managing member of Marathon Partners Equity

Management, which is an investment firm that specialize in small and mid-cap equities. Prior to

Marathon, Mario cut his chops at Gabeli asset management, prudential securities, and Robadi

and Company. Before that, he got a Bachelor of Science from

Binghamton University. Mario, thanks for joining us. Yeah, no, thanks for happening. I first came

across you on Twitter on discussing small caps. One user had posted, there is absolutely zero reason

to own small caps anywhere. I get this as consensus, but probably is for a reason at this point.

To which you replied, now that I know, tongue in cheek, an undervalued small cap is like a tree falling alone in the forest.

No one hears it and no one cares.

Yeah, that's right.

It was a bit of a, a bit of a joke, probably a little bit too dark of a humor.

Well, the problem I had is so many people took you seriously.

Sentiment in small caps is horrible right now. Yeah, the problem I had is so many people took you seriously. A sentiment in small caps is

horrible right now. Yeah, absolutely. It's, you know, I started the fund in 1997, and I think this is

the third time that I consider small caps broadly undervalued. You know, I think post-2000, post

the dot-com bubble burst was a period of time, you know, say March of 2000,

all the way up through the great financial crisis. And then the post-GFC 2009 through about 2013 as well,

...