1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
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.
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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.
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