Liaquat Ahamed: Lords of Finance, Flexibler Einband

Kurzbeschreibung

Die gegenwärtige Finanzkrise hat eine historische Parallele: der Crash an der Wall Street 1929 mit der nachfolgenden Großen Depression. Die Lords of Finance waren nur vier große Bankiers, die durch ihre Entscheidungen erst die Börse und dann die Welt ins Chaos stürzten. Eine packende und zeitgerechte Erinnerung daran, dass die globale Katastrophe vom Handeln einzelner Menschen abhängt, mit ihren Stärken und Schwächen, ihrem Ehrgeiz und ihren Irrtümern.

Beschreibung

Many of us take it as a given that the Great Depression - the consequences of which reverberated for decades, crippling the future of an entire generation and setting the stage for WWII - resulted from a confluence of inexorable forces beyond any one person or government's control. In fact, as erudite economist Liaquat Ahamed explains, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown. "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 the dynamic Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. These four men were as prominent in their time as Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson and Mervyn King are today, but their names were lost to history, their story untold, until now. Harnessing a keen sense of history and the narrative skills of the novelist, Liaquat Ahamed tells their story in vivid and gripping detail. As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the origins and global nature of financial crises, "Lords of Finance" a timely and arresting reminder that individuals - their ambitions, limitations and human nature - lie at the very heart of global catastrophe.

Klappentext

Paperback edition of this Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted title; a vivid, dramatic account of the four men whose personal and professional actions led to the world economic collapse of the late 1920s, and which obviously has parallels for today's situation.