Lords of Finance

This is the story of four (European and American) central bankers fighting the dramas and crises during the lead-up to the Great Depression. When crisis looms, Bank of England Governor Montagu Norman puts on a disguise and boards a cruise ship to consult with his friend Benjamin Strong in New York. If only financial crises could still be fought that way today! I liked it because I used to be a central bank governor myself!

I have always been fascinated by World War I history. But as a financial historian, I was especially enthralled by this dramatic story of the four central bankers who ruled that era. With great insight and humanity, Ahamed shows how the bankers’ well-intended struggle to restore the world to “how it was before the war” tragically doomed the world to another war – and taught a generation of future leaders to make smarter decisions after World War II. An essential prelude to the Roaring Twenties! 

There is no better way to get a sense of what went wrong in the 1930s than to read the bestselling and award-winning book of Liaquat Ahamet. Like no other Ahamet manages to combine economic explanations with personal portraits and a series of anecdotes which make you sometimes laugh and sometimes shake your head in disbelief.