Lords of Finance

Very well written interesting book.

Gives scary insight into the current Euro crisis, and makes one skeptical about the potential for social learning.

I read this book a long time ago. Reflecting back, two things stand out to me:

- Hyper inflation and depressions are incredibly difficult to live through. Fortunately, I have not had to live through such things, but will never think about them the same way again.
- Arrogance, the belief that you have all the answers, and an unwillingness to listen to others are the cause of all sorts of problems.

Currencies wars were fought in this book. Four major economies (France, UK, US and Germany) in the world lock horns after world war one in race to rebuild their economies. At the center is the currencies backed by gold - each countries races to build up gold reserves in order to keep the economy afloat and fight of currencies of other countries. The end of this shaky period is the creation of the International Monetary Fund