Lords of Finance

The Bankers Who Broke the World

By: Liaquat Ahamed

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

Great book

This is one of the best books on economics and finance that I have read. Way more interesting than it sounds.

Interesting book - annoying narrator

This is a very interesting and well written book. Basically, a very useful and fairly detailed narrative of the International Financial History of, roughly, 1919 to 1933, with a short sketch of what came afterwards. I think the author is a little too orthodox in his economics for my taste, but that did not in any way abstract from the usefulesness or enjoyment of this book for me. However, the narrator was extremely annoying with his inability to pronounce the names of some major characters in economics. The surname of the economist JM Keynes is pronounced "Kay - ns" not "Keens" as the narrator kept mispronouncing it. The surname of Walter Bagehot, whose 19th century book "Lombard Street" is considered a classic and is certainly familiar to anyone who knows the least bit about central banking (precisely the target audience of this book) is pronounced "budget" not "Bag-hot" as the narrator, incredibly, and stupidly, kept mispronouncing it. Granted, the pronunciation of these two names is not obvious, but it's not that difficult to check before starting reading. I need not even mention the catastrophic and (to anyone who understands German) fairly annoying way the narrator mispronounced German terms (of which there are quite a few peppered around the book). Sometimes it got to the point that it was impossible for German speakers to understand which German term was read! Awful, tell the man to check pronunciation the next time he does a book.

Unfair assessment of the gold standard.

interesting subject matter, written in an entertaining manner, but the author has a negative opinion of the gold standard shining through. his opinion bias spreads throughout the book. The gold standard in my opinion is a long-term solution that limits governments from taking advantage of Fiat currencies. I don't believe governments capable of taking their foot off the proverbial gas in the good times, therefore leaving us unprepared for the bad times. Gold creates a standard of value for our currency not determined by the government. For a much more eloquent argument, look at the work of Ron Paul. Thanks.

Outstanding

A highly informative history of monetary policy and economics in the period around World War One through the Great Depression. Focusing on the key players involved in policy in the U.S., England, France and Germany.

Well worth the read.

Would you listen to Lords of Finance again? Why?

It was quite long. Each character was exhaustively introduce which was a bit tedious at times but which subsequently helped the reader to understand how the thinking of each fed into the whole. So, a long book but worth the time to listen to. Really showed how complex the relationships were and are between all of the economies of the world. Eerily similar to 2008 showing how easy it would have been to have had a second great depression.

What did you like best about this story?

The explanation of how the economics works. How DOES a nation "fall out of the gold standard?" This book explains it in simple terms that anyone can understand.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

How interconnected the world economy really is and always has been. While we talk about "globalism" today as if it is something new, this book shows that, even in the early 1900s, everything was connected even then...

Any additional comments?

Worth the time to go thru it if you want to understand what happened in 2008 and want to be able to understand what people like Ron Paul are talking about when they speak of "hard money". Will really give you a basis to make up your own mind...

Learned a lot

Excellent work. Really helps to understand the complicated financial mistakes that helped propel the world into turmoil in the 1930s.

Good balance of facts and opinion

It is a very well documented book and I specially loved the epilogue which finds similarities between the past and present crisis

Understand the Facts and Motivations

goes into the economic facts and much of the national motivations and those of the primary actors.

Valuable knowledge in the current environment

De javu for those who follow today's world markets. Well done! I would have like more information on 31-37. Excellent read.

An excellent book

Very well narrated. Excellent material presented in a manner you want to listen to--more than once. Highly recommended.