The story of the worst economic crisis to hit the world

Meltdown
 
The Great Depression...

Simply put, it remains the worst economic crisis to hit the world, several times worse than the recent economic crash which we are yet to recover from.

Between 1929-33, it 'created hardships in every corner of the globe, from the prairies of Canada to the teeming cities of Asia, from the industrial heartland of America to the smallest village in (British) India'.

In Germany, it led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, says Liaquat Ahamed in his riveting Pulitzer Prize and Financial Times-Goldman Sachs award winning Lords of Finance - The Bankers Who Broke The World.

Liaquat's book, which places the 'world's most exclusive club', the central bankers of America, England, France and Germany, at the centre of events, goes on to show that contrary to what many people continue to believe, the Great Depression was no act of God.

In an interview with R Rajesh Kumar, Liaquat, an investment manager and a former World Bank official, revisits the period when the world was bound in 'gold fetters', and explains how politicians and bankers were among the chief culprits who sent it hurtling to the brink of utter damnation.

He also shares the story of the little-known farm economics professor, who, along with a President who knew no economics, played a lead role in saving the American - and the world - economy. And underlines the lessons that we all can learn from the world's journey to the edge of doom and back.

Image: Some of the 11,000 jobless in Cleveland register for temporary work with the city at the Cleveland Armoury, Ohio, US on November 13, 1930 during the Great Depression. The rate of registering was 1,500 people per hour, which kept the women clerks working through early evening.

AP Images