Comment

Lords of Finance

the Bankers Who Broke the World
Aug 27, 2015wyenotgo rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
An astonishing book! It brings to light the intriguing, arcane and in some ways frightening world of sovereign wealth, the small group of men who control it and the geopolitical impact of the decisions they make. It became clear to me as I read that some of those men were clearly eccentric if not outright mad. Ahamed explores at some length the mystique of gold, along with its many pitfalls as an arbitrary and often distorted standard for measuring wealth. And adding to that aspect was the realization that economics remains to this day not a science (dismal or otherwise) but simply a collection of contradictory theories, most of which have failed when attempts were made to put them into practice. The book also raises so many questions, not least of which was: Where on earth did Hitler find the enormous sums of money that enabled the Third Reich to build the largest and most advanced war machine of his day in a few short years, starting with a bankrupt and isolated country? Reading W. L. Shirer's "Berlin Diary" and "Rise and Fall .." provides no enlightenment either. The usual opinion seems to be that Hitler financed his adventure by confiscating vast amounts of personal wealth, mostly from Jews and by looting the countries he invaded; but that seems hardly sufficient to cover the cost of armaments and munitions, let alone equipping paying and feeding gigantic numbers of men in arms.