Recommendations based on Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the Worldby Liaquat Ahamed

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves

    by Andrew Ross Sorkin
    An examination of the 2008 financial crisis, how it was caused, and how it was dealt with.

    The book provides an overview of the financial crisis of 2007–08 from the beginning of 2008 to the decision to create the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The book tells the story from the ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

    by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    A critical examination of the impact of randomness/chance in life and financial markets.

    Fooled by Randomness, is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

    by Niall Ferguson
    Outlines the history of money and its pivotal role in human society.

    Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, ... (Goodreads)

  4. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

    by Jared Diamond
    Study of past societies' successes and failures in terms of environmental, economic, and political decisions.

    Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

    by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    A study of the role of randomness in life, and how it can lead to unexpected events.

    A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear ... (Goodreads)

  6. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

    by Jared Diamond
    Tracing the origins of human civilizations through the lens of geography, technology, and biology.

    "Diamond has written a book of remarkable scope ... one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: ... (Goodreads)

  7. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

    by Roger Lowenstein
    The story of the hedge fund that almost brought down the financial system in 1998, and the hubris and greed that led to its downfall.

    With a new Afterword addressing today’s financial crisis A BUSINESS WEEK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent ... (Goodreads)

  8. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

    by Alice Schroeder
    An in-depth biography of Warren Buffett, exploring his career, investments, and life.

    Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one ... (Goodreads)

  9. Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World

    by Margaret MacMillan
    An account of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its lasting effects on the modern world.

    'Without question, Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 is the most honest and engaging history ever written about those fateful months after World War I when the maps of Europe were redrawn. Brimming ... (Goodreads)

  10. Thinking, Fast and Slow

    by Daniel Kahneman
    An exploration of the two systems of the mind, and how they influence decision-making.

    In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow , Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and ... (Goodreads)

  11. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

    by Siddhartha Mukherjee
    A comprehensive account of the history and science of cancer, from its origins to modern treatments.

    An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found, here, and, here,. The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer - from its first documented ... (Goodreads)

  12. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

    by Timothy Snyder
    History of the mass extermination of civilians in Central and Eastern Europe during WWII.

    Americans call the Second World War “The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the ... (Goodreads)

  13. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

    by Doris Kearns Goodwin
    A comprehensive study of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and the unique cabinet he assembled.

    Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from ... (Goodreads)

  14. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

    by Daron Acemoğlu
    Examination of the economic and political forces that shape the success and failure of nations.

    Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail, answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't

    by Nate Silver
    An exploration of the art and science of prediction, examining why some predictions succeed while others fail.

    Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair's breadth. He solidified his standing as the nation's foremost political ... (Goodreads)

  16. Capital in the Twenty-First Century

    by Thomas Piketty
    An economic analysis of wealth and inequality in the modern era.

    What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic ... (Goodreads)

  17. Debt: The First 5,000 Years

    by David Graeber
    A history of money and debt, exploring the roots of our current financial system.

    Before there was money, there was debt Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Intelligent Investor

    by Benjamin Graham
    An in-depth guide to investing, providing strategies to become a successful investor.

    More than one million hardcovers sold Now available for the first time in paperback! The Classic Text Annotated to Update Graham's Timeless Wisdom for Today's Market Conditions The greatest ... (Goodreads)

  19. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

    by Richard H. Thaler
    An exploration of the principles of behavioral economics and its implications for society.

    Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Get ready to change the way you think about economics., Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central ... (Barnes & Noble)

  20. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

    by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    An exploration of how disorder and chaos can lead to strength and resilience.

    From the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost philosophers of our time, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a book on how some systems actually benefit from disorder. In The Black Swan ... (Goodreads)

  21. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

    by Roger Lowenstein
    A portrait of Warren Buffett's journey to becoming one of the most successful investors of all time.

    Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century—an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and ... (Goodreads)

  22. King Leopold's Ghost

    by Adam Hochschild
    A harrowing account of the colonization of the Congo and the exploitation of its people.

    In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a ... (Goodreads)

  23. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

    by Abhijit V. Banerjee
    Examines global poverty from economic, social and political perspectives and offers strategies to reduce it.

    Winner of the 2011, Financial Times,/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book of the Year Award Billions of government dollars, and thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs, are dedicated to helping ... (Goodreads)

  24. The Guns of August

    by Barbara W. Tuchman
    A riveting account of the events leading up to World War I and its devastating consequences.

    Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Proud Tower, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Guns of August, and The Zimmerman Telegram comprise Barbara W. ... (Goodreads)

  25. A Brief History of Time

    by Stephen Hawking
    Exploring the depths of time and space and the emergence of the universe.

    In the ten years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's classic work has become a landmark volume in scientific writing, with more than nine million copies in forty languages sold ... (Goodreads)

  26. One Up On Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money in the Market

    by Peter Lynch
    Legendary investor Peter Lynch shares his insights on how to invest in the stock market using everyday knowledge and experience.

    More than one million copies have been sold of this seminal book on investing in which legendary mutual-fund manager Peter Lynch explains the advantages that average investors have over professionals ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Battle Cry of Freedom

    by James M. McPherson
    A comprehensive history of the American Civil War, focusing on the political and military aspects.

    Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. ... (Goodreads)

  28. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

    by Michael Lewis
    A journey through the economic crisis in Europe and the United States, and its global implications.

    The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects ... (Goodreads)

  29. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

    by Erik Larson
    A family's struggle to cope with the darkness of Nazi Germany, as seen through one man's courage.

    The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from ... (Goodreads)

  30. How Will You Measure Your Life?

    by Clayton M. Christensen
    Exploring the purpose of life through personal stories and business insights.

    In 2010 world-renowned innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen gave a powerful speech to the Harvard Business School's graduating class. Drawing upon his business research, he offered a series of ... (Goodreads)