James Grant’s new book,Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian, tells the story of Walter Bagehot — a 19th century banker, an essayist, and a former editor ofThe Economist. Born in a small town in late-Georgian England, Bagehot became one of the most influential figures in Victorian-era finance and politics. Indeed, thanks to his celebrated 1873 treatise,Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market, Bagehot remains influential today, not just in England but in financial centers everywhere.Lombard Streetis a work to which all modern central bankers pay homage, even if they often fail to heed its advice.
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