Re: What Broke Deutsche Bank, by David Enrich, reviewed by Roger Lowenstein
Dear Sirs:
Roger Lowenstein’s review of David Enrich’s book about Deutsche Bank’s descent from a pillar of sound banking to one of the most reckless banks on the planet fails to mention the most important event in German post war banking history; i.e., that Germany gave up its own currency, the Deutsche Mark, for the euro on January 1, 1999. The Deutsche Mark was the soundest currency in the entire world, with the possible exception of the Swiss Franc. The euro has proven to be one of the least sound currencies. The fact that Deutsche Bank embarked on a path of reckless, but apparently perfectly legal, lending and trading after the conversion cannot be passed off as a mere coincidence. Both Mr. Enrich and Mr. Lowenstein need to dig deeper than recounting the personal character flaws of Deutsche Bank’s leadership to understand the real forces at work.
Patrick Barron
