A lively and compelling account ... Without ever coming out and saying so, Ahamed presents a world-spanning financial system that was rotten to its core, a machine that ran on lies, bribes and greed, busily manufacturing its own political opponents ... A longtime banker and hedge fund adviser, Ahamed knows what he’s doing ... Ahamed tells his story with an easy fluency and a high velocity, while navigating less familiar terrain with great confidence.
Mr. Ahamed has a pleasant style, and he writes short, welcoming chapters ... What Mr. Ahamed withholds are the strong, respectable arguments to embrace, not to shun, the boogeyman that Federal Reserve economists style 'deflation' but that a layman might rather recognize as human progress ... Mr. Ahamed, an unapologetic silver man, goes so far in his advocacy of remedial government action as to suborn the long-departed author of Lombard Street, published in 1873, to bear false witness.
Explains in riveting detail how events in Europe, the U.S., and developing countries successively fueled fear, stock-market turmoil, and financial chaos ... This supremely useful historical analysis not only explains past events but also, with its unsettling parallels to current economic woes, offers readers and policymakers clear directions for present and future paths to avoid.
While Ahamed explains the details quite well as he goes along, it helps to start with a general understanding of why finance mattered ... Ahamed understands the role of humor and anecdote, peppering his account with the leading characters’ nicknames and foibles ... 1873 might be a bit of work for the lay reader, but returns on the time invested are solid.
Economist Ahamed follows his Pulitzer Prize–winning Lords of Finance with another cautionary tale of economic catastrophe ... An exemplary work of economic history, with many lessons for the present.
An eye-opening investigation of the 'first truly significant global financial crisis' ... Granular and deeply researched, it’s an essential new perspective on the link between capitalism’s boom and bust cycles and the emergence of reactionary political movements.
