The forgotten crash of 1873 and its lessons for today’s AI frenzy

Robin Wigglesworth: It takes skill to blend the sweep of history, the complex nuances of high finance, and the vignettes, characters and observations that make a narrative compelling — and Ahamed absolutely nails it.

https://www.ft.com/content/93e4e3a9-197d-47bf-916c-6058e4b6c873


A central part of Ahamed’s argument is that the crash triggered a deflationary struggle as a result of a twist in the 19th-century monetary system. Deflation only ended with the discovery of new sources of gold in South Africa in 1886.

On Wall Street today, the AI boom is sometimes compared to the 19th-century railway bonanza, in which an essential infrastructure was built out by adventurers, geniuses and speculators.

The modern-day analogy would be a delay in the schedule of model-improvements and data centre build-outs by Anthropic and OpenAI.

Many economists believe the 1929 crash — the subject of Ahamed’s previous book, Lords of Finance, winner of the 2009 FT Business Book of the Year Award — was made worse by the absence of a hegemon to intervene and stabilise markets. 

Charles Kindleberger famously concluded that “the British couldn’t and the United States wouldn’t”.

Patrick Foulis Financial Times 4 June  2026

https://www.ft.com/content/8272e526-cdb2-48fb-8124-cd9fe70ce235



En lite bortglömd krasch är krisen 1873, som hade stor påverkan på världen. Om den skriver historikern Liaquat Ahamed i en ny bok

1873 The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World

Andreas Cervenka Nyhetsbrev 7 juni 2026

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/06/spacex-elon-musks-rymdbolag-passiva.html


Perhaps the danger is not 2008, 1999, 1973 or even 1873, but 1789. 

Schumpeter The Economist juni 05, 2026

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/06/perhaps-danger-is-not-2008-1999-1973-or.html





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