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.