Lords of Finance

The Bankers Who Broke the World

By: Liaquat Ahamed

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Pulitzer Prize, History, 2010

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.

In Lords of Finance, we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, the xenophobic and suspicious Émile Moreau of the Banque de France, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose facade of energy and drive masked a deeply wounded and overburdened man.

After the First World War, these central bankers attempted to reconstruct the world of international finance. Despite their differences, they were united by a common fear - that the greatest threat to capitalism was inflation - and by a common vision that the solution was to turn back the clock and return the world to the gold standard. For a brief period in the mid-1920s, they appeared to have succeeded. The world's currencies were stabilized, and capital began flowing freely across the globe. But beneath the veneer of boomtown prosperity, cracks started to appear in the financial system. The gold standard that all had believed would provide an umbrella of stability proved to be a straitjacket, and the world economy began that terrible downward spiral known as the Great Depression.

As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the global nature of financial crises, Lords of Finance is a reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, of their fallibility, and of the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.

©2009 Liaquat Ahamed (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Ahamed cannot have foreseen how timely his book would be..... Lords of Finance is highly readable - enlivened by vivid biographical detail but soundly based on the literature. That it should appear now, as history threatens to repeat itself, compounds its appeal." ( Financial Times)
"Erudite, entertaining macroeconomic history of the lead-up to the Great Depression as seen through the careers of the West's principal bankers....Spellbinding, insightful and, perhaps most important, timely." ( Kirkus Reviews)

The winds of change

This book is a wonderful explanation of how four butterflies flapped their wings and created hurricanes in the financial and therefore entire world.

History Of international banking 20th century

this book is Well written to give a general context of the four major Banks from World War I to World War II. it goes over the policies and impacts they had on monetary policies. I gave it a low star review simply because the content is pretty Advanced and not for the average reader. unless you have a real desire to learn about financial history, Finance and monitary policy then this book is for you.

Excellent book

A great history book. It explained these four men wonderfully and through great writing, the listener is able to keep everyone straight.

Much more interesting than I expected

I kinda fell into this book accidentally when I was looking for a history of the world between the wars. I know little to nothing about macroeconomics and wasn't really looking to learn more. But the author does an amazing job of weaving these abstruse financial concerns with intimate facts about the men who are his real subject, making it all both understandable and engaging.

The more things change...

The more they stay the same.

Fascinating book which reminds us that disastrous consequences often arise from best laid plans.

Greed and hubris were as much at play in the interwar period as they are today.

A great book for history buffs.