Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
By Liaquat Ahamed
Penguin, 576 pages, $32.95
FT Bookshop price: £16

When the history of the current financial crisis comes to be written, the battle of the index entries will surely be won by central bankers not politicians. The name Bernanke will appear on many more pages than Bush, King more often than Brown, and Trichet will trump even Sarkozy. Most of the time, central banks strive to be dull places; the people who run them relish their obscurity. But when crisis strikes, the limelight shines.