Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed

A study of the 1929 crash sheds light on more recent banking events, says Chris Cox

Undoubtedly already wedged into Christmas stockings across Whitehall, Lords of Finance brings the last great financial meltdown to life by focusing on the four most important bankers in the world during 1929, foregrounding the human drama as the boom of the 1920s collapses into the Great Depression. The potentially baffling economic history is buoyed by Liaquat Ahamed's flair for creating a compelling narrative from intimate details, using letters exchanged by the men to show how friendships and animosities provided the personal backdrop to otherwise abstract events. Ahamed, an investment manager, brings an insider's shrewdness to the proceedings, concluding that the collapse was caused not by mysterious forces but, rather, by the intellectual failures of those at the helm.