Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Lessons learnt from the Great Depression

An attempt was made to reveal the historical decisions and events that led to the Great Depression during the 1930s in the form of a book review presentation on “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World”. The author of this book is Liaquat Ahamed, a Pulitzer History Prize winner, who received his education from Cambridge and Harvard and has also worked in the World Bank.

The presentation was prepared and given by a group of four members: Anand Kalavadia (Leader, Reader), Agam Shah (Information), Harsh Solanki (Artist, Concept draws), Vishlesh Gondalia (Presenter, Computing).


The author has explained the cause(s) of the great depression focussing on individuals who had contributed to the start. Benjamin Strong Jr. of the New York Federal Reserve, Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Émile Moreau of the Banque de France, and Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank were the key players. These were the central bankers of the four major powers of the time - US, Britain, France and Germany. The book unfolds the details by explaining about the situations of these countries before the First World War, The Great Depression and after it.


The conclusion made was - a great depression can occur again if ruthless and unthoughtfull decisions are taken.

Quick Links:

Book review 1: Good to Great
Book review 2: We are like that only
Book review 3: 2G Spectrum Scam

Written by: Vishlesh Gondalia and the Lords of the Finance team

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