Jim Grant on ZIRP and "a compromise in the corporate immune system"

For ten years, or thereabouts, central banks of the world have taken it into their power to guide - indeed some might say (Grant's has said) - to suppress or to manipulate what is arguably the most sensitive or most important rate in capitalism, which is the rate at which we discount future cash flows, measure financial risk, and set investment hurdle rates.  That rate of interest, on average, has been under the thumb of our, to be sure, dedicated public servants.  Arguably, the price set by the central banks has been - certainly it's a controversial price - on the evidence of the massive buildup in financial leverage in the corporate and financial sectors - not the banks, mind you, but elsewhere - that price has been too low.  And is it not possible that the consequence of the manipulation of the rate of interest has led to as it were, since we're all epidemiologists now, a compromise in the corporate immune system such that an exogenous shock like this has dealt a blow to finance - has instituted a panic - such that might not have occurred had risk been priced in the market and rather than through administrative means?

~ Jim Grant, Grant's podcast interview with Mervyn King, March 27, 2020