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My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would... Continue »

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Benjamin PercyBenjamin Percy 9781455501663

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Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

by Michael Lewis

ISBN13: 9780393081817
ISBN10: 0393081818
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

As Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

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 pinata 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.

Book News Annotation:

The rising tide of cheap credit, default credit swaps, and other contributors to the continuing global financial crisis are, for most of us, too complex to grasp. But author and finance journalist Lewis knows how to explain those intricacies, even if it requires coming up with characters so weird and cartoonish they almost certainly had to be faked. They weren't. Readers will meet a bright monk who figured out how to play Greek capitalism to save his failing monastery and a cod fisherman who, with three days training, became a currency trader for an Icelandic bank. His book has that rare combination of traits: educational and entertaining. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author

Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of Liar's Poker, The Money Culture, The New New Thing, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Panic, Home Game, The Big Short, and Boomerang, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.

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Average customer rating based on 5 comments:

: bookpants, January 19, 2012 (view all comments by bookpants)
Great read and brought me up to speed with what is happening with the global economies. I was pretty clueless prior. So, if you're clueless and need a quick catch up, this book does a good job of giving you the quick-and-dirty lowdown so you can at least listen intelligently.
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: ldwilby, January 19, 2012 (view all comments by ldwilby)
excellent - should win Puddly Award
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: Bookwomyn, January 8, 2012 (view all comments by Bookwomyn)
Another very readable book by Lewis. He has a knack for making even the most complex information understandable to 'average' humans. Although I am a news junkie and have read a lot about the European and US financial mess, I learned a few things from this book. It's a quick read and I think everyone should do what they can to understand what is going on in the world. It's a mess - that's for sure. Scary!
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Product Details

ISBN:: 9780393081817
Subtitle:: Travels in the New Third World
Author:: Lewis, Michael
Publisher:: W. W. Norton & Company
Subject:: Economic Conditions
Subject:: Economics - General
Publication Date:: 20111003
Binding:: Electronic book text in proprietary or open standard format
Language:: English
Pages:: 224
Dimensions:: 8.25 x 5.5 in

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