Lewis' "Boomerang" Profiles Players in Financial Meltdown

Commentary November 08, 2011 at 07:57 AM
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Michael Lewis is back with Boomerang (W.W. Norton, New York, 2011), and who else can suck you into the morass of global financial shenanigans as well?  

The author, who penned Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short has done it again with Boomerang, which details the financial crisis by focusing-in on some of the players. There's Kyle Bass, who shoots things in the Texas scrub for fun, and who bet something like a half-billion on the financial meltdown.

And there are any number of Icelandic characters – did you know that Icelandic males are much into shoulder-bumping? – who, as a precursor to the financial crisis, became financial experts and bankers (literally, most of the people in the country seemed to gain investing wisdom in an instant) and then pretty much lost everything (it may take longer than an instant to gain financial wisdom – I'm still working on it).

Iceland? Who knew about Iceland, but it's a fascinating place and Michael Lewis makes it interesting enough that you may want to visit there.

Greece? Did I mention Greece and the monks? Well, they are in there, too, and Dublin and West Germany.  The U.S. is not exempt – the cover of the book shows George Washington with a black eye.  

Run to your nearest bookseller and buy Boomerang: it's a hoot, and it's spot-on about the crisis, then and now. The man makes financial ruin fascinating.  

Have a sensational week, and read Boomerang.  

 

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