Jeremy Grantham: US should focus on “green” infrastructure spending
Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of asset manager GMO, says the US must set out on a new “green” Marshall Plan to tackle climate change.
If the US is serious about tackling the biggest challenges facing the country right now, it needs to embark on a new “green” Marshall Plan, says Jeremy Grantham.
Jeremy Grantham, who co-founded US asset manager GMO in 1977, believes the US government should take advantage of historically low interest rates to finance “a long, sustained and massive public works programme”, similar to the scheme that helped to rebuild Europe in the wake of World War II, “at negative real rates”.
While Covid-19 is today’s obvious concern, Grantham is more worried about long-term issues. “I believe income inequality is eating away at the economy from the inside with the lack of economic progress for workers reducing demand.”
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
This problem goes back to the financial crisis, if not beyond. “The great waste in 2009 and 2010... was the use of precious resources to bail out banks,” says Grantham. The decision “was both unjust and economically inefficient: it was a violation of the spirit of capitalism”.
A new Marshall Plan should focus on “green” infrastructure spending: “It is absolutely imperative that the entire economy be greened if we want any hope to maintain a stable global civilisation in coming centuries.” Infrastructure in the US is already “unusually behind schedule on maintenance and subpar quality”, and many of the jobs created would be “industrial and labour-intensive”, helping to address growing inequality. The move would also help challenge China’s “growing dominance” in green tech.
-
Goodwin: A superlative British manufacturer to buy nowVeteran engineering group Goodwin has created a new profit engine. But following its tremendous run, can investors still afford the shares?
-
Is US stock market exceptionalism over?US stocks trailed the rest of the world in 2025. Is this a sign that a long-overdue shift is underway?
-
Goodwin: A superlative British manufacturer to buy now
Veteran engineering group Goodwin has created a new profit engine. But following its tremendous run, can investors still afford the shares?
-
A change in leadership: Is US stock market exceptionalism over?
US stocks trailed the rest of the world in 2025. Is this a sign that a long-overdue shift is underway?
-
A reckoning is coming for unnecessary investment trustsInvestment trusts that don’t use their structural advantages will find it increasingly hard to survive, says Rupert Hargreaves
-
Metals and AI power emerging marketsThis year’s big emerging market winners have tended to offer exposure to one of 2025’s two winning trends – AI-focused tech and the global metals rally
-
8 of the best houses for sale with beautiful fireplacesThe best houses for sale with beautiful fireplaces – from a 15th-century cottage in Kent to a 17th-century palazzo in Oxfordshire
-
King Copper’s reign will continue – here's whyFor all the talk of copper shortage, the metal is actually in surplus globally this year and should be next year, too
-
Luana Lopes Lara: The ballerina who made a billion from prediction marketsLuana Lopes Lara trained at the Bolshoi, but hung up her ballet shoes when she had the idea of setting up a business in the prediction markets. That paid off
-
British blue chips offer investors reliable income and growthOpinion Ben Russon, portfolio manager and co-head UK equities, ClearBridge Investments, highlights three British blue chips where he'd put his money
