Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Current Yield, the Grant's Interest Rate Observer of the Air.

I'm Jim Grant and with me in our brand new headquarters.

As always, Eric Whitehead.

To my left, Eric is at the controls and the great Evan Lorenz, deputy editor of Grant, is directly across in this

room that's still kind of bearing the marks of a recent move.

Places full of cardboard boxes is the truth of it.

And to my right is Simon McAllivich, who is, you'll find out.

Simon is a long-standing friend of mine and of Grant's interest rate observer, and he is here today

to tell us about the financial arm of the administrative state, I think, is one way of introducing

it. No? Yeah, we can call it that. And let me see. I think I have some business to transact.

Yes, we are sponsored today in part by Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bros. Send Pro online.

And in part, 50-50, mind you, by Grant's interest rate observer.

And in particular, by the upcoming spring conference, we can promise you on April 9th, we can promise you what, heaven.

I think Crocus is right.

Yeah.

Serendipity, because the conferences are always a serendipitous affair, we can promise you

a stimulation and I think not a few fine, actionable ideas. That's this Brands Conference on April

9th, so you've got to be there. Anyway, without further ado, Simon McEllivch, welcome to Current Yield.

Well, thank you for having me.

Well, it is great to have you here, and I should give you a proper introduction.

I was reflecting to Simon earlier that when you sit down with your friends for one of these podcasts,

you assume that you know so much about them until you realize that you're going to have to

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