书从1914年开讲，故事落在1929到33年间的大萧条，故事主角一位，纽约联储总裁Benjamin Strong，在大萧条席卷当时西方世界前一年谢世，与他在二十年代共宰宏观金融政策的英格兰银行行长Montagu Norman、德国央行行长Hjalmar Schacht、法兰西银行行长Emile Moreau，一个无力回天在位上苟延残喘十数年，一个借力纳粹试图重整德意志河山、一个褪变成保皇党与历史大潮反动，书便跟着他们的轨迹走到上世纪四十 年代，还讲了混不吝的新政总统罗斯福，历史的赢家是凯恩斯和作为苏联间谍帮助过中国革命、事发前与老凯共创战后国际金融体系的美国副财长怀特，最后比较了 当年的萧条和今天的危机。
本书立论：危机源自一战后列强在凡尔塞制定的游戏规则，维护了不公平、加深了不平衡。而后，书中四位金融大佬对 金本位的偏执，在上述不公平和不平衡背景下，导致美国为维护欧洲保持黄金储备、降低利率、导致泡沫产生，英德被迫在经济疲软时代抬升利率，从中获益的法国 有机会在政治上试图渔利，一环扣一环，从国际收支失衡、到股市泡破、到银行体系遭遇冲击，使上世纪29年到33年成为一个世纪最深重的经济社会危机。金 子，金子，都是金子的错。但在金子没错的富足时代中长大的大佬们，虽经历了一战噩梦，没看清其前其后世界经社格局的变迁，仍延续黄金时代的思维。
With penetrating insights for today, this vital history of the world economic collapse of the late 1920s offers unforgettable portraits of the four men whose personal and professional actions as heads of their respective central banks changed the course of the twentieth century
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 taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
In Lords of Finance, we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, the xenophobic and suspicious ??mile Moreau of the Banque de France, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose fa??ade of energy and drive masked a deeply wounded and overburdened man. After the First World War, these central bankers attempted to reconstruct the world of international finance. Despite their differences, they were united by a common fear??that the greatest threat to capitalism was inflation?? and by a common vision that the solution was to turn back the clock and return the world to the gold standard.
For a brief period in the mid-1920s they appeared to have succeeded. The world??s currencies were stabilized and capital began flowing freely across the globe. But beneath the veneer of boom-town prosperity, cracks started to appear in the financial system. The gold standard that all had believed would provide an umbrella of stability proved to be a straitjacket, and the world economy began that terrible downward spiral known as the Great Depression.
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 global nature of financial crises, Lords of Finance is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, of their fallibility, and of the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong.
作者介绍
Liaquat Ahamed是位资深投资专家,受过跨大西洋高等教育，拥有在跨国机构、非公智库、投资基金的工作经验。
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.