Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Ahamed, Liaquat: 9780143116806: Amazon.com: Books

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Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (Pulitzer Prize Winner) Paperback – Illustrated, December 29, 2009

by Liaquat Ahamed (Author)

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“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 (starred)

“There is terrific prescience to be found in [Lords of Finance’s] portrait of times past . . . [A] writer of great verve and erudition, [Ahamed] easily connects the dots between the economic crises that rocked the world during the years his book covers and the fiscal emergencies that beset us today." —The New York Times

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 that economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades. As we continue to grapple with economic turmoil, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, their fallibility, and the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.

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Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

December 29, 2009
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
ISBN-10

0143116800
ISBN-13

978-0143116806
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A magisterial work . . . As you learn how the world spiraled into depression . . . you can’t help thinking about the economic crisis we’re living through now.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The rich and charming story of the end of the world.” —Time

“Lords of Finance is highly readable . . . That it should appear now, as history threatens to repeat itself, compounds its appeal.” —Niall Ferguson, Financial Times

“There is terrific prescience to be found in [Lords of Finance’s] portrait of times past . . . [A] writer of great verve and erudition, [Ahamed] easily connects the dots between the economic crises that rocked the world during the years his book covers and the fiscal emergencies that beset us today. He does this winningly enough to make his book about an international monetary horror story seem like a labor of love . . . Mr. Ahamed does a superlative job of explaining the ever-germane way the problems of one shyster, one bank, one treasury or one economy can set off repercussions all around the globe.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“This absorbing study of the first collective of central bankers is provocative, not least because it is still relevant.” —The Economist

“This is narrative history at its most vivid, an epic portrait of how the predecessors of Ben Bernanke, Jean-Claude Trichet and Mervyn King helped shove economies into the abyss in 1929 . . . His reportorial style has the Barbara Tuchman touch. Learned yet unpretentious, he dips into diaries, letters and cables to pull out evocative vignettes . . . Central bankers, [Ahamed] says, can resemble Sisyphus in Greek mythology—condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again. Like Alan Greenspan, the four men described here saw their apparent successes melt into failure.” —Bloomberg News

“The parallels evidenced by Ahamed between state of the world financial system then and now add to the fascination of this remarkable achievement in history, biography and analysis.” —Fort Worth Star Telegram

“An outstanding book . . . [Ahamed] found a fascinating frame for relating global economic history from the beginning of World War I until the dying days of World War II.” —The Houston Chronicle

“[Ahamed’s] protagonists’ high-wire efforts to stave off national bankruptcies furnish Ahamed with plenty of drama to highlight his engrossing analysis of the complexities of monetary policy.” —Publishers Weekly

“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 (starred)

“Books grounded in history sometimes offer an eerie resonance for contemporary readers. Rarely has that statement seemed truer than with Lords of Finance.” —Steve Weinberger, Dallas Morning News

“[A] wonderful new history” —Newsweek

About the Author

Liaquat Ahamed has been a professional investment manager for 25 years. He has worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and the New York based partnership of Fischer Francis Trees and Watts, where he served as Chief Executive. He is currently an adviser to several hedge fund groups, including the Rock Creek Group and the Rohatyn Group, is a director of Aspen Insurance Co. and is on the board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution. He has degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge Universities.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (December 29, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143116800
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143116806
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #41,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Banks & Banking (Books)
- #64 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- #67 in Economic History (Books)

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4.6 1,699 ratings

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Liaquat Ahamed

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Liaquat Ahamed has been a professional investment manager for twenty-five years. He has worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and the New York-based partnership of Fischer Francis Trees and Watts, where he served as chief executive. He is currently an adviser to several hedge fund groups, including the Rock Creek Group and the Rohatyn Group, is a director of Aspen Insurance Co., and is on the board of trustees of the Brookings Institution. He has degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge universities.

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Why the Governor on FED of N.Y. and not Chairman of FED Board

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

"Lords of Finance - The Bankers Who Broke the World" by Liaquat Ahamed is an intimate look at the lives of four central bankers and the friendships forged between them. The thesis of the book seems to be that the Great Depression of the 1930's was not caused by a series of converging events but instead was brought about by the decisions made by the "Lords of Finance". Who are these "Lords" you may ask?

Germany's Hjalmar Schacht - Head of the Reichbank
Benjamin Strong - Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Montagu Norman - Head of the Bank of England
Emile Moreau - Head of the Banque de France

I have to give kudos to Mr. Ahamed for authoring such an entertaining and interesting look into a subject that some would consider to be dry monetary history or should I say biography seasoned with economic and monetary history. The later description being the secret to the book's entertaining quality. Mr. Ahamed delves into the personal lives of his Lords and focus not only on the economics and policy but also the friendships and animosities.

Some people dismiss the book as Keynesian propaganda, since the book doesn't address the financial machinations and manipulation that was going on at the time behind the scenes. Although I sympathize with their criticism, I still believe that the "Lords of Finance - The Bankers who Broke the World" is relevant and insightful, for one should always read opposing views and keep an open mind. For those readers who would like to learn more about the so called "Conspiratorial" point of view, I will recommend some other works following the review.

Note: I use the term "Conspiratorial" loosely without the intent of marginalizing that school of thought.

I found it revealing that Mr. Ahamed's chose Benjamin Strong "Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York" as the main American Protagonist not any or all of the four individuals who served as "Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors" during the period. The four individuals I refer to are Charles S. Hamlin, William P. G. Harding, Daniel R. Crissinger, and Roy A. Young. I believe Mr. Ahamed's choice of focusing on the private corporation that is Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y. instead of the governmental body called the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was the correct choice. It screams out, true power lies in New York not Washington.

The main criticism I've already mentioned above and labeled the "Conspiratorial Point of View" which Mr. Ahamed doesn't address in any significant manner in the book. To give you an example of information ignored by Mr. Ahamed was Congressman Louis McFadden's speech on the floor of the House of Representatives charging the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Secretary of the Treasury with Treason, Unlawful Conversion, Conspiracy, and Fraud. McFadden mentions the funding of Hitler and the Bolsheviks rise to power by the Federal Reserve Banks. The information is out there if you take the time to do the research.

To summarize, The "Lords of Finance" is an interesting read the way the story ebbs and flows between the main characters makes for masterwork in writing. I wish most books were this well written. My only issue is with the thesis that a group of bankers mishandled the power of their offices and that lead to the Great Depression, but they didn't intend to cause a depression. I contend that Mr. Ahamed is correct except with respect to intention. To me the evidence shows that at least Montagu Norman and Benjamin Strong and probably Hjalmar Schacht knew that the plan was to cause a depression and they actively worked towards that end in secret.

Now for the list of Books:

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler
Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Remarkable True Story of the American Capitalists Who Financed the Russian Communists
Wall Street and FDR
Conjuring Hitler
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Super Imperialism - New Edition: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominanc
Trading with the Enemy: the Nazi-American Money Plot 1933-1949
Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time
The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (2 Volume Set)
The Great Contraction, 1929-1933: (New Edition) (Princeton Classic Editions)
Money Creators

4 people found this helpful

Asleep at the wheel on the gold watch

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

I've been interested in the history of the first half of the 20th century and found this a well written and very readable account of that period from a central banker's perspective. Its starts out with the introduction of four of the main players of the book,the heads of the central banks of the leading powers of that time,France,Germany,Great Britain,and the United States. Well done portraits of each those bankers as the point of view switches back and forth so that by books end they feel like well known figures. Each was gifted, brilliant,driven and seemingly honorable and each was quite different,none was by any means the gray bland money counter stereotype popular in the media. All had powerful positions with the job of overseeing the value of our money and smoothing over financial crisis. In the end they all failed. It is only a small exaggeration to say that to bankers of that time the gold standard which currency values were tied to was little short of their god. This is an account of how that god turned on them through human mismanagement and ill intentions as they held to that standard thru a ruinous WW I's debt financing that created an imbalance that was not resolved in the war's aftermath. This eventually brought about the conditions for WW II. Gold became an albatross around the neck of the world's economies every step of that path as those bankers held to it tenaciously. The phrase "blind faith" comes to mind. If there was a person that was able to see beyond the group think of the era it was John Maynard Keynes,perhaps the finest economic mind of his time. By the time Keynesian monetary policy became the new group think it was too late and WW II was a done deal. Note:Very roughly Keynesian dogma says that in times of recession the government pumps money into the economy lowering interest rates, in boom times when things such as stock market speculation are getting too wild the government takes money out of the economy raising interest rates. The money added and subtracted by the government can be backed by other financial instruments or nothing beyond the good faith of the issuer(its OK to smile here). In contrast a gold standard ties money's value to the actual amount of physical gold in existence and more specifically to gold in the possession of the issuer. This makes for a more stabile society whereas to date Keynesian economics seems to have allowed for a wider sharing of prosperity. The author makes a strong case on the fallibility of relying on gold to 'auto regulate' the financial system whereas his argument for the superiority of Keynesian policies is not as convincing. In the final analysis they are both just systems. Both the gold standard and Keynesian system are capable of being gamed or succumbing to mistakes by the bankers behind them. And in the long run those bankers remain more important than the system(IMHO). A good man in a mediocre system seems preferable to an incompetent in a superb system. The book hits the correct amount of detail with in depth portraits of each of the players drawn with compassion so they become flesh and blood not the dry as dust personages that you would think most bankers would be. Combined with the world changing drama of those times this makes an exciting read(good history does that to me). Skilled craftsmanship by the author makes history that formed the world we live in engaging and accessible to the average well informed person.

P.S. Having found the history of the era depicted in Lords of Finance fascinating I have been carrying on. I just finished A Rabble of Dead Money: The Great Crash and the Global Depression: 1929-1939 and found that while it had limited coverage of the background detail of major financial institutions leading up to the Great Depression it excelled in capturing the spirit of the times. I'm reading Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States) next. It looks promising for coverage of the 1920's and 30's. If anyone has a recommendation for well done history of that era please leave a comment

One person found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

MarCar

Super interesting but a bit too long for somebody not with a finance background

Reviewed in Italy on January 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

The work behind this book is clearly humongous. So, hats off to the author. Historically a work of art. But the language is at times willinglynamd unnecessarily overcomplicated.

LuannBorges

Most interesting financial boom I’ve read so far

Reviewed in Brazil on April 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

Great book...gives us a chance to understand all the path to the 29 crisis, passing through the First World War and shaping the way that the most important financial heads think back then.

Unknown

Excessive confidence of an official (in his judgement) dealing with a complex market is dangerous.

Reviewed in India on June 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

This review is being written, while the world is in the middle of COVID related economic challenge. Lock downs and social distancing have impeded economic activity leading to job losses, salary cuts and economic challenges. People are looking towards their central bankers and Government for rescue.

Lords of Finance makes for an interesting read in such a backdrop. It is the story of the Central Bankers of USA, UK, France and Germany, of the decisions that they took, influenced their Government to take and the results.

The story starts with the end of first world war, which put reparations on Germany and resulting in European countries owing money to United States and the actions, thinking debates, etc. The story ends in a way with Roosevelt coming to power and his administration taking measures to get the USA and the world out of the economic crisis, by calming people and taking some counter-intuitive decisions like letting Agricultural prices to go up and drive out depression on the back of it.

A central theme of the book is to link fix the exchange rate by linking it to a Gold Standard. This is the way, the world worked historically, but by the end of it, Governments are fine to get the currency to what they believe are realistic levels and not let them be linked to gold and to be artificially high or low. Interestingly, this mistake was made by no less than Winston Churchill, despite the advise of Keynes. As it comes out, by linking credit to Gold, countries limit the amount of credit expansion and fortunes of countries and people are dependent on the new finds of gold.

Very interesting to read were the actions of the New York Fed in the run up to the 1929 crisis. They did raise interest rates and were worried about excessive speculation. In a way there was a similar message in Timothy Gethner's book the Stress Test. I guess Central bankers cannot influence irrartional markets beyond a point.

Following messages came out and I think that they continue to be relevant to the world:
1. The goal of central bank is to maintain the strength of the currency, support the banking sector minimise inflation and also support growth. This is important as some celebrated previous RBI Governors in India have focused primarily on inflation.
2. Very important in a financial crisis is to establish trust in banks. Stock market crashed in 1929, however the depression got bad with a bank failure in 1931. This happened again in 2008 with lehman. Alowing ILFS to go down was probably a great mis-judgement on the part of the Indian Government.
3. Indian history blames the British empire entirely for India's economic woes. As the author points out that international capital flowed freely globally and financed things like ports, railways, plantations, etc.
4. Financing Crisis lays the seed of the next trouble. Countries like Germany who financed the first world war by printing more money experienced high inflation in post war years.
5. Monetary Policy does not work like a scalpel but like a sledgehammer.
6. Greatest of people can make judgement errors. Keynes and all European central bankers welcomes the 1929 crash
7. Raising taxes and cutting unemployment benefits in a middle of a financial crisis is bad policy to deal with a crisis. In India a group of Income Tax Officers proposed an increase in taxes to fight COVID.

Roosevelt's strategy of getting a country out of a crisis makes for interesting reading:
1. Address bank failures first. Get people to have confidence to trust the banking system. done through bank holidays, talking to people, providing credit guarantees
2. Public spending to create jobs.
3. Pushing the prices to go up to encourage spending and borrowing. Distinction between cause and effect may not be that clear. This in a way is like yoga and reading body language, where both are based on co-relating the mind with the bodily actions. In one the body conveys what is going on in the mind, in the other use the body to change your mind and thinking
4. Allowing currency to fall and take dollar off the gold.

The ideas in the book continue to be relevant as the author points out at the end. All in all a great book to read and I give it my highest recommendation.

9 people found this helpful

Jack

Superb history, readable and informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

This did not turn out to be the book I thought I had ordered, but it proved a compelling read nonetheless. I thought I would get a book the explained the "springs and levers" that connected the Wall Street crash to bank failures to the depression. This was not made clear, and in hindsight it Is clear this book is aimed at a reader more knowledgeable in macroeconomic matters than I am.

Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book, extremely well written ( if not extremely well proofed) and very approachable even if you don't understand clearly some of the cause/effect relationships it talks about. Essentially it is a history of central banking and the growth of the effects of the Gold Standard during the inter war years, told through the roles played by the 4 chief protagonists, the Governors of the central banks of U.K., Germany, France and the New York Fed. Maynard Keynes features prominently and is shown as a key player in the increasing awareness of the limitations of the gold standard. The story focuses on the struggles of these four Governors in trying to deal with the fallout of the post-war reparations imposed on Germany, and the near-bankruptcy of both the UK and French governments during the depression. The US suffered enormously from the post-crash depression, but I never realised just how much it profited from the Allies from its war loans, to the extent that I can't help suspecting that the US took deliberTe action to accelerate the demise of the British Empire to impose its own hegemony. The French national stereotypes are played out again, both in its negotiations of the Reparations and its refusal to countenance meaningful reductions in the face of evidence that Germany would be unable to pay (consider that in today's terms relative to the size of the German Economy, reparations amounted to $2.4 trillion dollars !). The French position on Brexit negotiations (no discussion on Trade without settlement of the "divorce bill") came to mind several times as I read this book.
Anyone looking for a history of the growth of the role and expertise of Central Banks will find this a very useful read. Equally, it presents a very readable history of the main characters, especially the governor of the Central Banks and New York Fed, but also of the roles of FDR, Herbert Hoover and Winston Churchill, as well as John Maynard Keynes in this seminal period in Western economic history. A great read.

19 people found this helpful

Andrew

An education!

Reviewed in Australia on November 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

The best kind of history. Entertaining. Insightful. Educational.
Feels like I’ve done a course in economics. It makes a powerful case against old gold standard economics. I’m sure there’s another side to the story, as it’s very pro Keynesian - I will have to try to find something from the other side of the fence.

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