Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed

Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed is a must-read work that transforms one of the most complex economic stories of the 20th century, the Great Depression, into something deeply human. It’s a cautionary tale of pride, ideology, and the limits of control, reminding us that economies are ultimately governed not by formulas, but by people. The story follows four central bankers who, through their own flaws in judgement and conviction, steered the global economy towards the disaster that became known as the Great Depression: Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Benjamin Strong of the New York Federal Reserve, Émile Moreau of the Banque de France, and Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank. 

Ahamed’s genius lies in how he weaves monetary policy with narrative storytelling. His subjects were not cartoonish villains, nor were they infallible machines of economic reason. They were intelligent, disciplined, and sincerely convinced they were acting in their nations’ best interest. Their downfall lay in their blind devotion to the gold standard: the belief that currencies must remain tied to the value of gold to maintain stability and confidence. As their economies groaned under the weight of the post-World War I reconstruction and war debts, they clung to tradition, mistaking rigidity for safety. In doing so, they doomed their economies to the Great Depression. 

The book opens in the fragile years following World War I, when the victors of the conflict faced an endless financial dilemma: how could they rebuild their economies while demanding massive reparations from Germany? Ahamed shows how the gold standard, long considered a symbol of stability and order, became a trap. It restricted nations from adjusting their currency or responding flexibly to crises. At best, it offered discipline and predictability. At worst, it became a straitjacket that stripped financial institutions of the power to adapt.

Ahamed’s greatest strength is how he animates economics through personality. Montagu Norman, plagued by nervous breakdowns and superstition, emerges in the narrative as a brilliant but erratic leader. Benjamin Strong, his American counterpart and dear friend, is empathetic and competent—but passes in 1928 before the worst of the crisis unfolds. Émile Moreau appears cautious and nationalistic, determined to defend France’s economic interests, while Hjalmar Schacht, the sharpest political operator of the four, eventually aligns himself with Hitler’s regime before resigning in protest in 1939. Through these portraits, Ahamed transforms abstract policy into a study of human psychology, showing how personal beliefs and character can distort judgement even among the world’s most powerful minds. 

For readers unfamiliar with economics, Lords of Finance may occasionally feel dense. Ahamed does not shy away from describing balance-of-payment crises, interest-rate maneuvers, or the inner workings of central banks. Yet his prose is strikingly clear; even the most technical passages still serve his overarching narrative. He guides the reader through the tangle of interwar financing with the clarity of a professor and the prose of a novelist. When the 1929 crash finally arrives, it feels less like a sudden catastrophe than the inevitable consequence to years of mistakes. 

Beyond its historical depth, the book is still eerily modern. Ahamed wrote the Lords of Finance in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis, and this context is quite evident in his narrative: faith in markets, fear of inflation, and policymakers who thought they could master the economy. The lesson that runs through both eras is devastatingly simple: economic crises are not merely mathematical or structural failures, they are human and psychological ones. Institutions are run by people, and people are fallible. Ahamed makes us sympathize with the four men,understanding their reasoning even as we, with the benefit of hindsight, watch them march steadily, one “reasonable” policy at a time, towards a cliff’s edge. 

Lords of Finance ultimately reads as both a history and warning. Ahamed’s bankers were not evil—rather, men of integrity influenced by their own convictions. Their tragedy is that intellect is no defense against ideology. The modern world, with all its technology and complexity, may seem far removed from the 1920s, but the lesson endures: the global economy is, and always will be, human. We cannot deny the undeniably human aspect of banking or global economies. Financial history is never purely about money or theory, it is about the people who believe they can control both.