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|  | Author: Liaquat Ahamed
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
List Price: $32.95
Buy New: $8.74
as of 11/23/2009 07:15 CST details
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Seller: KYBOOKS
Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 4041
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 2
ISBN: 159420182X
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.10922
EAN: 9781594201820
ASIN: 159420182X
Publication Date: January 22, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW! May have small publisher mark.
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Showing reviews 16-20 of 61
 A Loquacious History of the Great Depression July 27, 2009
Ubaid Dhiyan (Foster City, CA USA)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
In his Acknowledgments Mr. Liaquat Ahamed mentions as inspiration a 1999 Time cover story featuring Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers as "The Committee to Save the World". It was these men who worked together, aggressively and decisively, to prevent the multiple financial and currency crises of Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and LTCM from ballooning into a global financial meltdown. That history looks at some of them less kindly now (think Greenspan) is another story. Mr. Ahamed aspires to tell the story of the events that led to the Great Depression through a similar group of powerful central bankers. This select group was composed of Mr. Benjamin Strong, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1914 - 1928); Mr. Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England (1920 - 1944); Mr. Émile Moreau, Governor of Banque de France (1926 - 1930) and Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank (1923 - 1930) described by the popular press of the time as "The Most Exclusive Club in the World". Mr. Ahamed's research is impressive, unfortunately his narrative device is a spectacular failure. Writing a book of financial history with not one or two but four principal protagonists, each of them colorful in his own quirky way and with no clear relationships amongst them, can be a tough task that the author does not successfully accomplish.
I don't normally enjoy biographies and handling four at a time is daunting. The writing does not help with its obsession for awkward and useless details like in the following sentence on page 459 - "Several years before when Roosevelt needed help with the trees on his estate in Hyde Park, his Hudson Valley neighbor and friend Henry Morgenthau introduced him to an obscure fifty-nine-year-old economist, George Warren, professor of farm management at Cornell, under whom Morgenthau had studied as an undergraduate" The 'obscure fifty-nine-year-old economist' is relevant to the chapter where this is taken from but I don't understand (or care) if he gave advice to Roosevelt on his trees and was introduced through Morgenthau, himself making a first appearance in the book. The invocation of Morgenthau's name only becomes clear a few pages later where it is revealed that he became acting secretary of the Treasury. Another such example is on page 319, in the introduction to Benjamin Strong's successor, George Harrison. The detail that Harrison clerked for Oliver Wendell Holmes is perhaps tangentially relevant, that the same position was later held by "Harvey Bundy, father of the Bundy brothers, William and McGeorge, and by Alger Hiss, the senior State Department official later accused of being a Soviet spy" is certainly not. Amusingly, Hiss makes another appearance later in the book in another irrelevant anecdote.
Much of the rest of the book is also a meandering mess. Chapter 14 is an excellent example. It starts with the Dow, careens to Will Durant and General Motors, then dives into the Florida real estate market followed by an anecdote about Adolph Miller and his neighbor Herbert Hoover that seems to have no real bearing on the chapter's broad content. The author then talks about the Fed and the difficulties faced by central bankers, illustrated through some excerpts from Benjamin Strong's diary before smashing right back into Durant. After this whirlwind tour of the American financial and political landscape, the author flies off to Germany and Hjalmar Schacht. All of this in the space of ten pages! Needless to say, it makes for poor narrative flow.
In my opinion the reader would have been much better served if the author had chosen to tell the story either through one main protagonist (Schacht?) or through one of the central banks (the New York Fed?). That he let the Time cover story straitjacket him into such a loose narrative was an avoidable mistake. As I read the book I kept asking myself, what were the editors on this project doing?
So does the book redeem itself at all? Only a little bit in part four. The writing improves and some of the multiple threads come together. I personally had an epiphany about the role of money in a modern economy and understood a little better the role of monetary policy. I do wish the book had been better written (or at least better edited). Unfortunately, in its present form, this is not a book I can recommend.
 Yes it's about the gold standard, but there's much more ... July 26, 2009
Larry R Frank, MBA, CFP
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wealth Odyssey: The Essential Road Map For Your Financial Journey Where Is It You Are Really Trying To Go With Money?
I've read through the other reviews and, for the most part, agree with those who rate this book highly. I won't reiterate those good comments.
I would like to bring the book, yes primarily about the period 1914 to 1944, into relevance today. First, it is a great historical read essential to consider and understand today for those clamoring to go back to some currency standard pegged to a natural resource, i.e., gold or silver. What is instructive is that nobody could agree on what the rules of that standard were, primarily because each country had its own set of issues to deal with. Solutions to a problem in one country often lead to another problem somewhere else.
Second, recalling a general recognition of a bubble in modern times through the term irrational exuberance coined by Fed Chairman Greenspan, page 321 sums up 1928, "There was now general agreement that the United States was faced with a stock market bubble. But the system was greatly divided on how to respond." In modern times, the debate also was about prematurely pricking economic growth for the sake of containing market valuations.
Third, pages 323-324 discusses how the control of amount of credit was outside of the banking system. Interesting to read that back before 1929, much like the 1990's and 2000's, "It was these players {US Corporations, British stockholders, European bankers flush with liquidity, even some Oriental potentates}, all of them outside the Fed's control, who were by far the most important factor supporting leveraged positions in the stock market." Today, think Credit Default Swaps and Mortgage Backed Securities instead of brokers loans back then. Indeed history seems to teach us that most bubbles are financed by some sort of excessive credit.
Finally, Ahamed's epilogue also brings yester year to the fore. 1929 - 1933 was not just one crisis, but a series of four sequential crisis's that rolled across the world each feeding off the previous crisis. He then shows how similar crisis's occurred starting with Mexico borrowing too heavily in 1994 (Germany 1920's), the emerging markets crisis 1997-98 (European financial crisis 1931), the bubble leading to the tech crash in 2000 (US 1929), and the global financial crisis in 2007 (bank panics 1931 - 1933). He admits the analogy may not be exact, however this time around there was a decent interval between crisis that did not exist back then as well as a series of misjudgments back then that seemed to not exist more recently.
Overall, an informative read. Two other related works that provide a broader background for a deeper understanding of the era, so one may learn more about today and more importantly how we got here, include:
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence by Robert J. Samuelson
A very good work for a deeper appreciation of the development of money:
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
For a read about perhaps why crisis may be okay after all ...
Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy by Daniel Gross
 Liaquat Ahamed is a fraud, a puppet of the bankers! July 8, 2009
Christopher M. Brown (San Antonio, TX)
22 out of 48 found this review helpful
Liaquat Ahamed is a fraud, a puppet of the bankers. If he knew anything about history and the current crisis he's know that bailouts are the last thing this country needs to save it's self. He would know that the only way to end this is to END THE FED!
Thomas Jefferson said,
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
James Madison said,
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."
Woodrow Wilson said,
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
[...]
 In These Tough Economic Times - Its Good To Study History July 3, 2009
Nikki Leigh (Shenandoah Valley, VA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lords of Finance: The Bankers That Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
In 2009 we're deep into a major recession in the United States and many other countries throughout the world are experiencing many of the same problems. Each week we hear comparisons to previous recessions and economic downturns - but the benchmark for all financial crisis is the "Great Depression". So, this seems like a great time to read and learn more about what happened around the world from the end of World War I and the late 1930's. Liaquat Ahamed has written a great book that documents what was happening in the world during this twenty year period. I highly recommend that anyone interested in learning more about what lead up to the Great Depression and how the financial leaders handled it - must read this book.
In 1918 the world was reeling from the events during World War I and they were trying to rebuild their countries and the economies in those countries. We are all familiar with the bare bones of the end of World War I, the Roaring Twenties in the United States, rebuilding in Europe, the financial crash in the United States, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party and many of the other events between 1918 and 1938.
* But, how many of us know the details of the individual financial systems in the United States, France, Britain and Germany?
* Do you know what people managed the financial decisions in these countries during that time?
* Do you understand how the gold standard worked and what that meant for each country?
* Do you know what happened in the ongoing debate about war reparations and what that did to various economies around the world?
* What happened within Germany when they were ordered to pay substantial reparations after the war?
* What happened when Germany started printing money around the clock to boost the economy?
These are just a few of the questions that are answered in this book.
In school I remember learning that the financial situation in Germany after World War I was one thing that enabled Adolf Hitler to gain power in Germany. But I never understand the extent of the financial crisis. My depth of understanding on that piece of history has increased dramatically. Understanding what happened in the different countries and the various domino effects are staggering as you turn the pages and see how things fell apart.
I love to read about history and to get a deeper understanding of what led to various events. But I think in the current economic climate - this information is even more important. Most of us have heard the saying that "those who do not study history are destined to repeat it". That idea kept coming to mind as I read this book and saw many examples of the things these power players in the worldwide economic community tried that failed and in a good number of cases - made the situation much worse.
Through the pages of this book you will meet Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Emile Moreau of the Banque of France, Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank in Germany and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In addition, you will learn how each of these men reached these positions and much about the history of these various financial institutions.
Anyone interested in the economy - and especially people who could make a positive difference in the financial situation - should be required to read this book. For people who are concerned about authenticity - there are 23 pages of notes and references for the information in the book and a 12 page bibliography. This is a long book - over 500 pages of content, plus the notes, bibliography and index. It took me a while to read the book - because its not really the sort of content you want to rush through, but I thoroughly enjoyed the content and feel like I have a much more complete understanding of the things that led up to the Great Depression and how the world recovered from this crisis.
Educational History June 29, 2009
James C. Bradford
The author explained what actions and non actions contributed to the Great Depression, and how the Central bankers were indecisive at critical moments of the crisis after WW1. He also covers how the world recovered from the suffering brought on by the depression. And, how many of the countries were acting in their assumed best interest at the expense of others. How the gold standard played a role. How president Roosevelt had to go against accepted practices to solve the problem at home. How conventional wisdom had to be rethought. Those who are involved with our financial system and international finance today should read this book.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 61
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