Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World - Michael Lewis

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

By Michael Lewis

  • Release Date: 2011-10-03
  • Genre: Economics
Score: 4
4
From 1,955 Ratings

Description

“Lewis shows again why he is the leading journalist of his generation.”—Kyle Smith, Forbes
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.

Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish.

Michael Lewis's investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American reader to a comfortable complacency: oh, those foolish foreigners. But when he turns a merciless eye on California and Washington, DC, we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations.

Reviews

  • Excellent book - a must read!

    5
    By Italospeed
    Folks, if you want to understand what went down in Europe and how the obvious wasn't obvious enough to prevent a meltdown, well this is a book you must read! Easy read and not technical at all! Very inspirational from a strategy standpoint.
  • Fun, but not great

    4
    By Bike=good
    Liked it, but not mind blowing.
  • Entertaining but pointless

    3
    By boatcaptain
    Great illustrations of various financial collapses, wrapped in culture biased antidotes. However, the book really does not build a case or make a point. It is like reading the first half of c s Lewis....a great backdrop is painted but the main characters never finish their journey. That said, read the book. It is worth 3 hours of your time to add perspective to the financial condition of our time.
  • i finally understand the financial collapse

    5
    By DrMarkM3
    a colloquial, easy read that finally explains the financial collapse in Europe and America. Interesting characters and stories bring visual clarity into an otherwise confusing part of history. This is a surprisingly fun read.
  • Boomerang

    4
    By wetzupdocHAv
    Michael Lewis gives a very readable and clear account of how the current financial crisis unfolded, not as a sudden collapse, but rather as a series of events in many different countries over a period of time. Each country gets its own chapter, and this works great until he comes to Germany. Lewis then gets sidetracked into a character assassination of the German psyche, using well-known expressions involving certain bodily functions to support his thesis, expressions all of which have counterparts in our own (American) language, BTW. This section seems unfounded and unsupported and it undermines the credibility of the rest of the narrative, which seemed so clear up to that point. Still, it is a good read and I came away feeling that I had a much better understanding of how it all developed, that it didn't start with gross misconduct by our own bankers (who got off Scott-free compared to the Germans, who paid a price) but that it went back at least to the financial debacle in Iceland (remember that one?) and that cheating the system is apparently endemic in some cultures who deceived their way into the EU and even now seem to be clueless as to how they got there.
  • Excellent read

    5
    By LIZDVM
    Michael Lewis has done a wonderful job of outlining the quagmire we have all gotten ourselves into. At the end he makes it clear that we each must take personal responsibility for this. Working together to find a creative solution is our only hope.
  • Boomerang

    5
    By EMC2TLC
    A must read for anyone trying to figure out how we got into the financial mess we are in at the moment.
  • Every voting Citizen should read Boomerang

    5
    By reolaw
    Every American citizen entitled to vote should be required to read this book. It clearly summarizes that we are a nation of addicts who cannot delay gratification and are sold political dope by the two main political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. Americans are emptying the teapot, and if we don't wise up and do the grown up things, which is the logical long term thinking and action, instead of buying the pandering pablum peddled by both the Republicans and Democrats. A great book that explains our present ecconomic situationd and the foreshadowing that we have more pain to come.
  • Fascinating Read

    4
    By KR-SK
    Explains in simple english, causes for the crises in several nations and rounds out with how much of a hole we are in as a nation…
  • Great read.

    5
    By Jim Carns
    Great book.....this and the Big Short gave me great insight into what happened in the financial meltdown of 2007--2012. Jim Carns