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)

Good Reading, Funny Story, Arrogant Author

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would. I think the book is informative and entertaining.

Would you be willing to try another book from Michael Lewis? Why or why not?

Maybe, he kind of comes off as a jerk.

Which character – as performed by Dylan Baker – was your favorite?

Ummm That guy in Texas

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I really liked the nickels

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this read. I do think that Michael Lewis is a bit of an arrogant jerk. He finds a way to essentialize whole countries of people and criticize nearly everything about them while at the same time inferring their general stupidity.

He does explore the greater mechanics of the global economic crisis and the notion of 'disaster tourism' is pretty hysterical.

A real wake up call

Any additional comments?

This book uses everyday language to explain the various economic crises we've seen around the world. The author does an excellent job of explaining, and he does it in an entertaining way. I think anyone who worries about the U.S. money stability should read this book.

World economics With humor

Book to learn more about the economic crisis across the world that took place in 2007. I didn’t expect to be laughing all the way through the book. That was a pleasant surprise.

Everyone should read this book

Entertaining, well-written, funny, a page turner… amazing for a potentially dry subject. Everyone could use a better understanding of financial bubbles.

Informative and Interesting but Shallow

I learned a lot listening to this book, but everything I learned felt grossly simplified. Lewis has latched onto these defining aspects of national character as his framework for the book, and I think he very often overplays them. The generalizations and pop-psych cultural studies sometimes fly a little thick and obscure the more interesting points, which I found distracting. But overall, it's worth a listen.

Great Story. Exceptional Narration

Michael Lewis has a way of telling a story. Dylan Baker brings it to life so much better than I could have imagined. This is an example of an audiobook far more memorable than the already very good book could have been on its own.

Makes finanical crisis easy to understand

Lewis has an easy going way and makes the tough to describe easy to follow. Each chapter has truly unbelievable stories. Holds attention all the way through. Highly recommend. Only issue is I wish Lewis had read it.

Not to impressive

I was expecting something better. The research for this book was superficial and simply not good enough. Could have been a great book but the author only presents the american stereotype interpritation of the countries analyzed. The author does make a few good points and observations but not enough to save the book and i resent the author calling europe the new third world. Europe may not be perfect but a lot better than the US.

A good understanding the global financial meltdown

A good follow up to the Big Short whereby the financial meltdown is explained in more depth and detail on a global level. If you are seeking to understand how the complexities of global finance affect economies around the world and how those economies are interdependent then this book takes a look at a large sampling from large to small. It delves into the incompetent money managers thinking and sheds light on the corrupt and morally bankrupt banks that took down governments, and more importantly it illustrates how the tax payers who had the misfortune of having lived in places where the power elites wrote themselves blank checks with other people's money. A great great read!!!

Interesting Financial Views around the World

Coming from a Latin American Country myself, is interesting to know what Iceland and especially Greece were doing after the financial crisis in 2008 in the United States. I thought of corruption of something happened only in my country, but is a World wide phenomenon. It is interesting to see on this journey on how government officials brought down so much debt into these countries and is a ripple effect throughout! Boomerang is an excellent name for this book.