27 books like Lombard Street, a Description of the Money Market

Friedman, a Nobel-winning former Economics professor, writes brilliantly and playfully, and students of economics love to read him. Yet he delves into the heart of the monetary problems that have been confronted historically. This he uses to shed light on how to conduct monetary policy today.

He ranges across the whole of American history. For example, the failure of the Continental Congress’s currency occurred since it was printed to finance the Revolutionary War when there was no federal government and no federal tax revenue. This led to the new US Constitution and the ability to raise taxes, and a stable currency that was backed by gold and silver.

With the Civil War, the US Treasury printed money called “greenbacks” and suspended conversion to gold and silver during the War, but re-established convertibility in 1879 at the pre-War rate. Friedman shows how this convertibility led to prolonged, hugely damaging deflation for… show more.

Goodhart, a former head economist of the Bank of England, builds upon Bagehot to describe how modern central banks evolved to insure the private bank system.

Goodhart argues that regulations over private banks were unnecessary and that the shadow bank system (that had evolved since the Vietnam War era inflation drove banks away from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the US) would never go bankrupt. He argues that the investment banks always had sufficient reserves, so that increased regulation was undesirable.

The Crash of 2008 proved Goodhart wrong. Yet ironically, it is the exact same set of arguments that are being used today: banks do not need increased regulation since the Fed and Bank of England are now holding reserves, and private banks are also holding more reserves. Even the FDIC has argued against bringing investment banks into the FDIC system that is efficient, because it would involve increased… show more.

Bernholz, a renowned Swiss Economics professor, builds upon Friedman to provide an unparalleled view of how budget deficits and high government spending end up being financed by the “inflation tax” of printing money to cover the deficits.

Throughout history back some two thousand years, Bernholz describes ancient and modern monetary regimes based on metallic standards and fiat money unbacked by any metal. He analyzes how increased money supply causes moderate, high, and hyper-inflations throughout this history. He provides dozens of historical examples of money and inflation in times of crises including war.

Bernholz adds the dimension of how international exchange rates are affected during rising inflation and when deflation ultimately occurs. He shows how different “laws” regulate behavior, with good money driving out bad money until the bad money collapses in value and then good money is created or imported that drives out the bad money to its extinction. Bernholz… show more.

King was the head of the Bank of England during the financial crisis of 2008. He declared full deposit insurance for the entire United Kingdom private banking system, with no deposit premiums required. This ended the run on the banks that spilled over into the streets of the UK during the crisis, when the Bank of England at first decided not to take care of Northern Rock, a private retail bank that was headed towards insolvency.

King provides a whimsical and sharp review of the private and central bank system before and after the crisis that builds very much on Charles Goodhart and Walter Bagehot. King laudably faults economists and the Economics profession for thinking that establishing negative real interest rates worldwide is the answer to central bank crises (in his newly added Introduction to the paperback edition of his 2016 hardback by the same name). Yet King sides with… show more.

Empire, Incorporated makes it clear that corporations mattered in shaping the British Empire. But how did they actually operate?

Virtuous Bankers offers a window into an ordinary workday at the Bank of England, one of the most important institutions in eighteenth-century England. In the process, the book provides new insights into the nature of public credit and the growth of the British state, as well as an engrossing introduction to everyday life in Georgian London. 

This 1844 novel has only been translated into English in an abridgement, but it was a tremendously popular novel in France. Féval capitalized on the bestselling novel The Mysteries of Paris by Eugène Sue by writing a novel with a similar title set in London. Later George W. M. Reynolds wrote another novel with the same name. What makes this novel stand out? Féval’s hero is an Irishman seeking revenge against the English who have wronged him. Disguising himself as the Marquis de Rio Santo, he worms his way into high society and sets about debauching ladies while plotting to blow up the Bank of England and destroy the British Empire. The novel would later inspire the creation of The Count of Monte Cristo and the character of Captain Nemo.

I really loved this book!

Desan’s work filled multiple gaps in my knowledge regarding the historical circumstances that contributed to modern money.

In my view, it is the best and most comprehensive book for anyone who wants to know how we arrived at current monetary arrangements. The research and writing are masterful, comprehensive, and there are many ‘oh my, I didn’t know that’ moments. 

A real eye-opener and an essential read for anyone interested in money, finance, and the emergence of capitalism.

Easily the best and most authoritative book since Dickson’s The Financial Revolution In England – a must-read!

US economist Frank Knight is credited with distinguishing uncertainty from risk back in 1921. Yet the two are often conflated.

Kay (an eminent economist) and King (a former Governor of the Bank of England) argue powerfully that the distinction does matter. They range widely across macroeconomics, politics, and consumer choices to show why reducing the future to a set of numbers (probabilities) creates a false – and often disastrous – illusion of power over future outcomes.

They argue that instead we should aim to make decisions that stand a reasonable chance of being robust against unknowable, as well as forecastable, paths that the future might take. That’s very much the ethos of my own books: building in resilience is a key part of successful personal financial planning.

As a finance guy, I had always heard of the BIS or Bank for International Settlements, but I had no idea what it did, how it worked, or its history.

Adam LeBor expertly explains in the Tower of Basel not only what and who the BIS is, but how they have manipulated and influenced the global economy for generations. Despite the bank's strong connections to the Third Reich during the 1930s, the BIS continues to dominate global finance today as the central bank for central banks.

Every two months, leaders from the most powerful central banks in the world including the Federal Reserve meet in Basil to chart a course for the world economy under a cloak of secrecy. Tower of Basel rips the veil from this clandestine organization and exposes dark forces few are aware of.

Most of us think of economics and economic policy making the same way that we do about other scientific fields, such as physics or engineering. Like those sciences, economics uses numerical models and mathematical analysis to explain how the world works.

In contrast, this book reveals how economics is a very different kind of science from physics or engineering. Holmes shows how economists and economic policy-makers rely on language as much as, or even more than, numbers to achieve their desired policy goals.