Lombard Street
Walter Bagehot · 1873
5.0 · 3 ratings
About the book
The first book to explain what a central bank is actually for, written while the ink of the 1866 panic was still wet: keep a reserve, and in a crisis lend freely at a high rate. Every modern bailout follows — or ignores at its peril — Bagehot's rule.
Try the short course
Part 1 · Why the money market is a street. The first six slides, free.
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Bagehot could have called his book 'The Money Market'. He named it after a real street in the City of London instead, because he wanted to talk about concrete things: banks, deposits, bills, people who lend and people who borrow. If the subject sounds impalpable, he says, that is the writer's fault, not the subject's.
Then he puts the whole book into one line. Lombard Street is "by far the greatest combination of economical power and economical delicacy that the world has ever seen."
Most readers only hear the first half of that sentence. But power and delicacy are one fact, seen from two sides. Everything that makes the street strong is also what makes it fragile, and the chapter walks you from the first side to the second.
Inside the course
14 parts- Why the money market is a streetFree above
- A general view: more money, more nervousness
- How Lombard Street came to exist
- The Chancellor in the money market
Questions
Is Lombard Street free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
14 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. Lombard Street is waiting in the app’s library.
