Chances are you can’t name a single central banker from the 1920s, but in their day, they were quite the celebrities, even giving false names when traveling by ocean liner in order to dodge the press.

Many people today are unfamiliar with the term “Great Depres­sion” and the profound signifi­cance it holds in global history. The Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted through the 1930s, ...