Boomerang

Travels in the New Third World

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Dylan Baker

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Big Short, Liar’s Poker and The Blind Side!

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.

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.

The trademark of Michael Lewis’s best sellers is to tell an important and complex story through characters so outsized and outrageously weird that you’d think they have to be invented. (You’d be wrong.) In Boomerang, we meet a brilliant monk who has figured out how to game Greek capitalism to save his failing monastery; a cod fisherman who, with three days’ training, becomes a currency trader for an Icelandic bank; and an Irish real estate developer so outraged by the collapse of his business that he drives across the country to attack the Irish Parliament with his earth-moving equipment.

Lewis’s investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American listener to a comfortable complacency: Oh, those foolish foreigners. But when Lewis 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.

©2011 Michael Lewis (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

“No one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Lewis.” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)

M Lewis discusses deficit issues and crowds well.

He does a good job of reviewing debt/mob psychology. Well done, anecdotal, entertaining, educational, interviews.

When history is detail, myth is truth.....

What did you love best about Boomerang?

The compartmental nature of the explanation of the global financial mess.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Boomerang?

The thought that a community could be so broke that they could only employ one person and that person would be an insolvency controller.

What does Dylan Baker bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved his sarcasm.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt ill lots of the time because I knew that lots of the stereotypes were accurate.

Any additional comments?

We need another book about the success of communities to sovereignties to overcome insolvency.

Good story, big short part 2

This is a great book with lots of interesting facts. It is essentially the big short part 2.

Really interesting

I found the way Micheal divided this story into sections of smaller stories which collectively gave us the whole picture a great way to tackle this complex story. I am now a Micheal fan. If you like Jon Ronson you'll probably like this. Now I get why finance types quip 'at least we're not Greece'.

Helps to understand what's going on in the world

His overview of the crises in Iceland, Greece, Ireland and the U.S. really helps one to understand what is happening when Greek workers are striking against austerity measures. His view of human nature seems spot on.

Account of financial crisis in layman's terms

Where does Boomerang rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Excellent. Dylan Baker is a great narrator and captured the soul of this book wonderfully.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Michael Lewis takes a complex financial mess and sorts it out so anyone can understand just how seriously our global society has screwed up the world economy.

Which scene was your favorite?

I was most moved by the situation in Greece and how vividly he describes the situation.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

While I did chuckle a few times (because the author is funny here and there to lighten the mood), most of the book is set to make the reader disgusted with the behavior of the few financial jet setters and self-interested politicians that created this crisis out of greed, self-ambition, or ignorance.

Must read for an understanding of our world

Would you listen to Boomerang again? Why?

Yes. Because I don't have a good enough memory to remember all the important things revealed in this book, nor all the amusing and quotable ones.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The dumbfounding discovery of how so much of the world is run by dumb, ignorant and unscrupulous individuals, and how so many collude with them toward our ruination.

Which scene was your favorite?

Learning that Californians who voted in Schwazenegger as an outsider ready to defy the status quo, when asked for a direct vote on four reforms that he could not get passed through conventional processes, refused to support even one of them. This says a lot about what is most deeply wrong with our society.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me want both to laugh and to cry, many many times.

Any additional comments?

A book that everyone should read. I can't imagine anyone who would not gain understanding from it. And it is more entertaining than any entertainment I can think of.

Very engaging

Great info and told in a very engaging and entertaining way. This is my 3rd Michael Lewis book (2nd through audible) and they have all been fantastic.

Didn't want to be a 5 stars across the board guy

WOW! This book is informative and poignant.

He analyzes the behavioral traits of a society using historical and anecdotal evidence and then uses that evidence to explain how those traits related to each countries financial collapse (or involvement in a collapse). There were a few laugh-out-loud moments and many moments where I sounded smart at cocktail parties after listening to it.

Get this book. Very worth it. I'm definitely going to get his first (financial) book, "The Big Short"

P.S. I really try not to be an all 5's or all 1's guy. I hope that says something about the all 5's rating.

P.S.S. I can't believe the surprise twist ending when you find out his brother was his father AND he was a vampire all along.

A non-political review of the 2008 crash

Michael Lewis travels much of Europe, especially the PIIGS countries - Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - researching the problems leading up to the financial crash and the aftermath. He is both serious and witty. I highly recommend this book. He also travels up into Scandinavia and then into Germany. Lastly he travels into the "next Greek-like economy" - California. Do you know there are a number of cities in CA that spend 50 or 60 percent of the annual budgets on retirement expenses? This cannot be sustained. And as sympathetic as I want to be for the Greeks, Lewis points out serious problems such as massive cheating on taxes and entitlement to retirement at 55 by so many. Your eyes will be opened!