As a way of combating the effects of the First World War, the bankers attempted a reconstruction of the market by converting the world back to the gold standard- which is strongly criticized by Ahamed. The bankers had one common fear -inflation- which was the biggest threat to capitalism. The book provides memorable portraits of their lives and decisions as heads of their central banks which had undeniable effects on the course of the century. Lords of Finance follows the lives and eccentric personalities of four central bankers: Montagu Norman from the Bank of England, Emile Moreau of Banque de France, Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While the 1929 Great Depression is often assumed to have been caused by a series of unrelated and uncontrollable events converging, Ahamed reveals that in fact, the economic meltdown was down to specific decisions made by central bankers who also set the scene for the catastrophic events of the Second World War. It is a revealing, non-fictional account of the events and causes of the Great Depression. Published in 2009, Lords of Finance was written by professional investment manager Liaquat Ahamed.

Liaquat ahamed books