Boomerang by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis writes a masterful story as he reveals how the Global Economic Crisis happened in his new book, Boomerang.

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 piñata 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.

And in America, the epicentre of world consumption, economic imprudence ran unchecked: the subprime mortgage market caved in, and Wall Street Investment Banks collapsed under the weight of fiscal irresponsibility of their own making.

I could not stop reading this book.  The writer, with a degree in economics, writes simply and clearly, and explains everything so well that a lay-person like me could understand it all.

Erini Fardouly
Librarian