Liaquat Ahamed
The Great Depression was not an unavoidable natural disaster, but the direct consequence of hubris, rigid economic orthodoxy, and catastrophic miscalculations by four of the world's most powerful central bankers.
The rigid adherence to the gold standard served as an economic straitjacket that forced central banks to raise interest rates and deplete liquidity precisely when their economies needed stimulation.
The uncoordinated return to gold at flawed exchange rates gave some nations artificial competitive advantages while crippling others, fracturing the interconnected global financial system.
Massive, unsustainable war reparations imposed on Germany created deep fault lines in international finance that cracked under the first signs of serious economic pressure.