Book Review: Lords of Finance

15 June 2009

As we work our way through the present economic mess, looking back at what led to the Great Depression is a valuable exercise. This book does a superb job describing what happened, and is so well written it is hard to put the book down.

The core problem we faced back in the Great Depression was the financial leaders we had (with the exception of Keynes who was not in a leadership position) did not understand the economic system after WWI and as such tried to return to the economic system of old, centered on the gold standard, rather than adapting to the new world economy. And when the crash hit, rather than reacting to it, they doubled down on the old system.

This book will make you feel more optimistic today. Granted everyone in charge is guessing – no one knows for sure what to do. But they are making educated guesses based on a lot of study about how our economy works. And they are actively trying to resolve the problem. This alone puts us today far ahead of what occurred back then.

By any measure this is a thrilling story and a great read. In the context of today, it's also very useful information. Amazon link.

As we work our way through the present economic mess, looking back at what led to the Great Depression is a valuable exercise. This book does a superb job describing what happened, and is so well written it is hard to put the book down.

The core problem we faced back in the Great Depression was the financial leaders we had (with the exception of Keynes who was not in a leadership position) did not understand the economic system after WWI and as such tried to return to the economic system of old, centered on the gold standard, rather than adapting to the new world economy. And when the crash hit, rather than reacting to it, they doubled down on the old system.

This book will make you feel more optimistic today. Granted everyone in charge is guessing – no one knows for sure what to do. But they are making educated guesses based on a lot of study about how our economy works. And they are actively trying to resolve the problem. This alone puts us today far ahead of what occurred back then.

By any measure this is a thrilling story and a great read. In the context of today, it's also very useful information. Amazon link.