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)

Clarity of complexity

Starts off slowly but picks up speed with great clarity of the forces and details of the mechanisms driving the global economy with special focus around the Great Depression.

Wonderful

This book is brilliant. It makes its vast scope coherent, explains the complex issues involved clearly, retains detail and personal interest to make the story riveting from both a macro and micro level. The reader has the two most important attributes of a reader-his voice does not grate and HE KNOWS HIS MATERIAL. Can not recommend this book too highly.

A must read if interested in financial history

This is a great book for understanding the history and workings of markets and central banks. It is not a light listen but if you pay attention, you will gain an understanding of how government central banks can influence modern economies and markets. This book helps to explain how the reactions of the central bankers of the US, Britain, France and Germany to the economic challenges faced at the end of WWI led to financial chaos which made possible the rise of radical elements in Germany. The author does this by going into extensive detail of each of the central bankers. This makes the story much more personable and a bit less esoteric--no small feat when considering the topic.

déjà vu all over again

In Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, Liaquat Ahamed sets out to explain how the decisions of a a handful of central bankers in the US, England, France, and Germany brought us the Great Depression of 1929. An economist for the World Bank, Ahamed presents a story filled with interesting characters, mishandled events, and analysis easily followed by any reader. Front and center, is the Gold Standard which stabilized currencies, but also prolonged the economic malaise. Circumstances beyond anyone’s control propelled the downward economic spiral and magnified the decisions of key bankers making the problems much worse. There is a lot here only applicable and related to the crash of 1929. However, there is also much here which brings a sense of déjà vu to our current economic circumstance. Readers will be encouraged that we have gotten through these times before. Readers may also be reminded that things could be worse. The reading of Stephen Hoye is a plus.

Absolutely fantastic.

An extremely knowledgeable monetary and financial history of the western world from prior to World War 1 up to about the end of World War 2. Told very cogently and, in my view, objectively, in an easily accessible manner that continually sustains interest of the reader/listener. Excellent work.

Great financial story of the early 20th century!

This a great book. It tells the tale of the four major financial powers in the beginning of the 20th century: America, Germany, France, and Great Britain. It starts in the pre World War I years and carries through to the end of World War II, covering one of the most dramatic periods in financial history, the Great Depression. The book's premise is that the Great Depression was the result of the mismanagement of the world economy by the central bankers of the four powers, which seemed plausible in my layman's perspective. The performance is very good and compliments the story nicely. I highly recommend it.

Mind blowing exposé.

A well-written, documented and read essential book, to understanding the causes of war and the financial meyhem surrounding the two great modern wars of the 1900's..

Great book

one of the greatest books I've read in finance and economics. Thorough and yet easy flowing. it was certainly captivating.

Well-researched, clearly delivered, entertaining

Fantastic listen. For such a dense and technical topic, Ahamed does a great job keeping things accessible and peppering the story with entertaining tidbits and details. He draws out the main characters quite well and makes sure to remind the reader of who's who throughout the story. As an economist (though no expert in monetary or historical matters) I enjoyed this greatly.

The performance is good, but I have a big quibble: his mispronunciations of major figures' names. Hoye is able to affect a perfectly convincing Edwardian British accent, yet he can't correctly pronounce Keynes, one of the main characters in the book and the most famous economist of the 20th century (in this book he's probably #5 in importance after all the top central bankers). It's pronounced Canes, not Keens. Every time I heard this mispronunciation it felt like a small sharp object was jabbed into the back of my head. Another repeated mistake: Bagehot is pronounced "Badgett" not "Bag-hot." Not an easy one, but surely you'd want to do your research on this, right?

Highly recommended

This was a very pleasurable listening experience of a fascinating and riveting economic history Europe and the United States in the period spanning the two world wars.

The audiobook is unabridged and consequently quite long at over 17 hours. It took me about a month to get through but didn't ever feel like dragging.