Liaquat Ahamed

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one persons or governments control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions taken 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 Emile 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 façade 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 fearthat 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.

THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE The current financial crisis has only one parallel the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression of the 1930s which crippled the future of an entire generation and set the stage for the horrors of the Second World War Yet the economic meltdown could have been avoided had it not been for the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers In Lords of Finance we meet these men the four bankers who truly broke the world the enigmatic Norman Montaguof the bank of England Benjamin Strong of the NY Federal Reserve the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbanlk and the xenophobic Emile Moreau of the Banque de France Their names were lost to history their lives and actions forgotten until now Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail in a timely and arresting reminder that individuals their ambitions limitations and human nature lie at the very heart of global catastrophe

THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE.The current financial crisis has only one parallel: the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression of the 1930s, which crippled the future of an entire generation and set the stage for the horrors of the Second World War. Yet the economic meltdown could have been avoided, had it not been for the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers.In Lords of Finance, we meet these men, the four bankers who truly broke the world: the enigmatic Norman Montagu of the bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the NY Federal Reserve, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbanlk and the xenophobic Emile Moreau of the Banque de France. Their names were lost to history, their lives and actions forgotten, until now. Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail, in a timely and arresting reminder that individuals - their ambitions, limitations and human nature - lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lords of Finance comes a brilliant account of the earliest truly global financial calamity.On Friday, 9 May 1873 the Vienna stock market collapsed. Four months later Wall Street was in trouble. Elsewhere, as panic selling spread across financial markets, some countries defaulted on their debts, while the Bank of England was forced to raise its rates to their highest level in a century. It was the first global crash in history. And it was to have calamitous consequences.In his powerful new book, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lords of Finance tells the epic story of that crash and explores its economic and human costs. He describes how the growth of the international bond market in the 1850s and 60s funded a frenzy of speculation in railways, construction and nation-building. He examines those who became swept up in the boom, from leading bankers like the Rothschild dynasty to national leaders both visionary and venal, to rogues and chancers like the shameless Jay Gould, to such sceptical onlookers as Mark Twain and Karl Marx. He then traces how, in the subsequent panic, investors were left with catastrophic losses, while governments on both sides of the Atlantic rushed misguidedly to reorder the worlds financial system.As he shows, the blunders made as the crisis unfolded set the stage for twenty years of deflation, and a punitive legacy of aggrieved populism that infected every part of the globe. Amid the crashs many aftershocks, the US abandoned Reconstruction, European powers staged an economic takeover of the heavily indebted Ottoman Empire, and the principle of international free trade came under pressure. Meanwhile there was a revival of antisemitic movements in Europe that blamed Jewish finance for the disaster.A brilliant evocation of a key turning point in world history, 1873 is also a masterly examination of the unforeseen political and social consequences of financial misjudgements.

Los señores de las finanzas es una obra magistral que nos sumerge en una época y unos personajes que nos dan una perspectiva única de la situación económica actual. En el año 29 se produjo una de las peores crisis financieras de la historia. Mucho se ha escrito sobre las consecuencias que tuvo pero poco sobre sus causas. Durante años se ha considerado que esta se produjo por una confluencia de factores no regidos por poder politico alguno. Pero segun el autor, fueron las decisiones tomadas por un reducido grupo de gobernadores de Bancos Centrales las que condujeron a esa grave crisis. El libro se centra en las historias del enigmatico Montagu Norman del Banco de Inglaterra, la xenofoba Emile Moreau de la Banque de France, la arrogante Hjalmar Schacht del Reichsbank y Benjamin Strong gobernador de la Reserva Federal, en apariencia hombre energico que escondia una alma herida. Cuatro personas con la voluntad de reconstruir el sistema financiero internacional y con un miedo comun: la inflacion. Si durante un breve periodo su solucion del patron oro parecio acertada, las consecuencias que aquello tuvo fueron desastrosas. La caida en espiral de la economia llevo al mundo a uno de los periodos mas oscuros de su historia, La Gran Depresion.

Premio Pulitzer 2010. "Una obra magistral que nos sumerge en un mundo que nunca debió haber desaparecido de nuestra memoria" The New York Times Book Review. Los señores de las finanzas es una obra

Los señores de las finanzas es una obra magistral que nos sumerge en una época y unos personajes que nos dan una perspectiva única de la situación económica actual. En el año 29 se produjo una de las peores crisis financieras de la historia. Mucho se ha escrito sobre las consecuencias que tuvo pero poco sobre sus causas. Durante años se ha considerado que esta se produjo por una confluencia de factores no regidos por poder politico alguno. Pero segun el autor, fueron las decisiones tomadas por un reducido grupo de gobernadores de Bancos Centrales las que condujeron a esa grave crisis. El libro se centra en las historias del enigmatico Montagu Norman del Banco de Inglaterra, la xenofoba Emile Moreau de la Banque de France, la arrogante Hjalmar Schacht del Reichsbank y Benjamin Strong gobernador de la Reserva Federal, en apariencia hombre energico que escondia una alma herida. Cuatro personas con la voluntad de reconstruir el sistema financiero internacional y con un miedo comun: la inflacion. Si durante un breve periodo su solucion del patron oro parecio acertada, las consecuencias que aquello tuvo fueron desastrosas. La caida en espiral de la economia llevo al mundo a uno de los periodos mas oscuros de su historia, La Gran Depresion.