Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
By LIAQUAT AHAMED (Penguin Press, 2009)
Reviewed by Jose Nocera for the New York Times ‘Book Review’ section, The ‘Lords of Finance’ offers a grand narrative of the events leading up to the Great Depression. Liaquat Ahamed, a former World Bank economist and investment fund manager, started writing this book before the current global financial crisis, not aware of the relevance it would have upon publication. It is a narrative of the financial and economic turmoil that began in 1914 through the post-World War II era. He traces the development of this crisis through the lives, attitudes and decisions — eerily echoing the catcalls of today’s Wall Street — of four international central bankers from that era: Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve, Montague Norman of the Bank of England, Emile Morceau of the Banque de France, and Hjalmer Schacht of the Reichsbank of Germany. The liquidity crisis of 1914 has suddenly become a subject of relevance and interest as it parallels today’s global financial crisis. Ahamed’s central thesis is that the critical decisions made by these four bankers not only caused, but exacerbated the Great Depression, and also created the conditions for World War II. The read provides an exceptional perspective into today’s global financial crisis.
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