Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour - Softcover

Lewis, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141975016 ISBN 13: 9780141975016

Publisher: Penguin, 2012

Synopsis

Having made the U.S. financial crisis comprehensible for us all in "The Big Short", Michael Lewis realised that he hadn't begun to get grips with the full story. How exactly had it come to hit the rest of the world in the face too? Just how broke are we really? "Boomerang" is a tragi-comic romp across Europe, in which Lewis gives full vent to his storytelling genius. The 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. The Irish wanted to stop being Irish. The Germans wanted to be even more German. Michael Lewis' investigation of bubbles across Europe is brilliantly, sadly hilarious. He also turns a merciless eye on America: on California, the epicentre of world consumption, where we see that a final reckoning awaits the most avaricious of nations too. This is the ultimate book of our times. It's time to brace ourselves for impact and, with Michael Lewis, to laugh out loud while we're doing it.

About this title

Review:

Fascinating ... the book could not be more timely ... a sharp-edged narrative that leaves readers with a visceral understanding of the fiscal recklessness that lies behind today's headlines (Michiko Kakutani New York Times)

Michael Lewis's bravura journey through Europe's economic underbelly brilliantly charts the consequences of a world plagued by debt ... highly enjoyable ... nicely politically incorrect, often very funny, and shot through with genuine insight (Robert Harris Sunday Times)

Brilliant ... he has a novelist's gift (Spectator, Books of the Year)

Lewis' investigation of bubbles across Europe is brilliantly, sadly hiliarious (GQ magazine)

Lewis is the finest storyteller of our generation (Malcolm Gladwell)

He is so good everyone else may as well pack up (Evening Standard)

Michael Lewis meets some extraordinary characters in his excursion through the barely controlled madness that is modern finance ... lucid, entertaining (Tony Barber Financial Times)

He writes with the wit and observational eye of a travel writer (Richard Fitzpatrick Irish Examiner)

He writes quite brilliantly and understands the complex financial matters whereof he speaks. As polemical prose goes, it is hard to beat (Howard Davies Management Today)

About the Author:

Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics. He has written several books including the New York Times bestsellers Liar's Poker, widely considered the book that defined Wall Street during the 1980s, The Big Short, 'probably the single best piece of financial journalism ever written' (Reuters), the breakneck tour of Europe's post-crunch economy, Boomerang, and the bestselling exposé of high-speed financial scams, Flash Boys. He writes for Vanity Fair magazine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0141975016
• ISBN 13: 9780141975016
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240