As the global economy is racked by its worst crisis since the Great Depression, there is a renewed interest in the lessons to be learned from the world economic collapse of the late 1920s. Drawing on his best-selling book, Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, noted author Liaquat Ahamed discusses the insights we can gain from the Great Depression about the forces that cause global financial crises, the similarities between the breaks down in the 1920s and the current meltdown and the actions economic officials need to take in order to reverse the downward spiral in the world economy and avoid a repeat of that cataclysm.

Liaquat Ahamed has been a professional investment manager for twenty-five years. He has worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and the New York-based partnership of Fischer Francis Trees and Watts, where he served as chief executive. He is currently an adviser to several hedge fund groups, including the Rock Creek Group and the Rohatyn Group, is a director of Aspen Insurance Co., and is on the board of trustees of the Brookings Institution. He has degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge universities.