The Meb Faber Show · Friday, July 31, 2026
Liaquat Ahamed notes the emergence of a new class of savers in Europe during the mid-19th century, leading to lower real interest rates. This prompted investors to seek alternative investments beyond equities, which had experienced a deep bear market. The Rothschilds and the Bearings became dominant forces, underwriting 70% of global bonds.
“And that's why the Rothschilds figure in the title, because the masters of the universe in that era were the Rothschilds. They had essentially invented the global bond market in the early part of the 19th century. And dominated it after 1850, they and the Bearings accounted for 70% of global bond underwriting.”
“And savers started looking around for attractive investments. And they'd had their fingers badly burnt by investing in equities in the middle of the 19th century.”
“The bear market in equities from 1845, let's say, until the 1850s, was the deepest bear market that they'd experienced. And it caused them to shun equities. So this was a boom built on bond investments and built by investors in bonds.”