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)

Very Engaging Book

Excellent and engaging audio book.A bit short but i recommend to anyone who wants to get a birdseye view of some of the factors that led to the financial crisis. a bit flippant and makes politically incorrect generalizations of nationalities but good all the same

a rounded adventure into events shaping the world

wonderful sample of culture, and financial insight in short stories about the economic backlash of the mortgage crises and stone if the elements leading up to it. I saw the effects of what he speaks of while in Ireland. it connects the dots of real life experience and what I know from school, from his other works.

Well written

For a subject that can be daunting to explain and even harder to make interesting, Michael Lewis did an excellent job. Stories were interesting and the topic held my attention the entire time.

I love each MichaelLewis book I read

I am not usually interested in economics or governmental financial troubles. But I learned a lot and enjoyed the read. There was a good reader too.

Entertaining and informative read

As in the "The Big Short," Michael Lewis tells a somewhat technical story through stories about individuals and organizations and, in this case, societies. I enjoyed the combination of the story and Dylan Baker's "can you believe this" type of delivery. Somehow the mostly bad and even depressing news/information is presented in a way that's pretty enjoyable. There are certainly some oversimplifications and broad generalizations based on his personal experiences, but it's a good level of information to add to other information that someone may run across in understanding what's happening to the world's economic and financial system. I would highly recommend the book.

Good overview, but not in-depth enough for me

Would you consider the audio edition of Boomerang to be better than the print version?

No opinion. Did not read the printed version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What about Dylan Baker’s performance did you like?

What? This is not a fictional book, or is it?

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Level of political corruption in some of the European countries - most notably Greece.

Any additional comments?

Overall, it was a good overview book for understanding some of the root causes of economic problems in Europe.

brillant as usual but slight and rushed.

What did you love best about Boomerang?

The idea of different countries having different cultural identities each bringing them to the same catastrophic place from different roads. Everyone is an addict but some have food compulsions, others heroin. Loved particularly how 11 million Greeks with no interest in paying taxes and little interest in fiscal responsibility, seduced Germany into loaning them so much money that they have the power to bring down the European Common Market.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Boomerang?

The understanding that California's political system is making it impossible to recover. How will our inability to overcome our pension commitments play out across America. It doesn't look good for us.

What does Dylan Baker bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

He is clear and focused.

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

You have to both laugh and cry. The situation is horrendous and by no means over but, truly, if you don't laugh, you are in big trouble.

Any additional comments?

Lewis is brilliant but this book is rushed. Like a puzzle with a number of pieces on the board but many more to go. How will China play a role? What happens when the US moves to shore up Europe but is without its own resources? Lewis needs to write a new chapter every month and Audible needs to offer it. Everyone would buy a subscription, I promise.

Into world finance?

Well if you were not, you will be after you listen to Boomerang. As a fan of prior books of Michael Lewis I decided to give this one a shot. It was done almost along side of The Big Short and fills in a lot of the story of what was going on around the globe while in America we had our financial crisis going on. I actually understand now what is happening to Greece and other EU countries much more deeply and why it is more serious than I initially thought because of this book.

It was very interesting, sometimes witty, sometimes tongue in cheek but always on point. There were no slow spots in the book and it was well narrated. I recommend this to anyone whether your into world finance or not!

Interesting but not complete

Lewis gives an interesting story of his travels. Boomerang explains some of the theories for the cause of the economic downturn in global economy. He doesn't really explain the issues in the US nor does he predict what is to come. The book ends abruptly as his journey ends. It is a travel log with some thoughts yet a fun read.

I can always come back to Michael Lewis

I can alway count on Michael Lewis to write something that is interesting to listen to, and leaves me with new insight about a subject that I thought I knew a little about, Boomerang is no different, interesting perspective on finance and what got us to where we are today, and it points to an unsettling economic future.