Description
Book SynopsisTHIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE.
The current financial crisis has only one parallel: the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression of the 1930s, which crippled the future of an entire generation and set the stage for the horrors of the Second World War. Yet the economic meltdown could have been avoided, had it not been for the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers.
In Lords of Finance, we meet these men, the four bankers who truly broke the world: the enigmatic Norman Montaguof the bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the NY Federal Reserve, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbanlk and the xenophobic Emile Moreau of the Banque de France. Their names were lost to history, their lives and actions forgotten, until now. Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail, in a timely and arresting reminder that individuals - their ambitions, limitations and human nature - lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.
Trade Review'Highly readable... [Ahamed]
cannot have foreseen how timely his book would be. -- Niall Ferguson * FT *
'
Fascinating... a
brisk, original, incisive and
entertaining account of a crucial time in the world's economic history that continues to affect us all today.
Anyone who wants to understand the origins of the economic world we live in would do well to read this book' * Michael Beschloss *
One of those rare books -
authoritative, readable and relevant - that
puts the "story" back into history... a
spellbinding,
richly human [and]
cinematic narrative. * Strobe Talbott *
A great read. * George Soros *
Absorbing [and]
provocative, not least because it is still
relevant. * The Economist *
