When the history of the current financial crisis comes to be written, the battle of the index entries will surely be won by central bankers not politicians. The name Bernanke will appear on many more pages than Bush, King more often than Brown, and Trichet will trump even Sarkozy. Most of the time, central banks strive to be dull places; the people who run them relish their obscurity. But when crisis strikes, the limelight shines.
The last great liquidity crisis to hit the global financial system happened 94 years ago, at the end of July 1914. It paralysed the wholesale money market, closed the world’s stock markets for months and necessitated unprecedented government intervention in the banking system. Rightly, this is where Liaquat Ahamed begins.
Ismailimail 