海角大神

Let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e Michael Lewis. By the time you turn 50 you鈥檝e written almost an entire shelf of incredibly successful books (including 鈥淟iar鈥檚 Poker,鈥� 鈥�The Blind Side,鈥� 鈥淭he New New Thing,鈥� 鈥淭he Big Short,鈥� 鈥�Moneyball鈥�), some of which have been turned into equally successful movies.

So engaging is your writing that poetry lovers devour your financial journalism and stockbrokers inhale your sports stories. Your 2010 book (鈥淭he Big Short鈥�) explained the 2008 Wall Street collapse to the average reader in vivid and lucid terms. What do you do for an encore?

Lewis鈥檚 answer was to take advantage of a brand-new travel option: 鈥渇inancial disaster tourism.鈥� In other words, head to some of the places on the planet most badly singed by a horrific combination of avarice and the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers, talk to some of the more colorful victims, and then write a book about it all.

That book is Boomerang, and you won鈥檛 know whether to laugh or cry while reading it.

Lewis says that the idea for 鈥淏oomerang鈥� came to him 鈥渁ccidentally,鈥� while talking to a hedge fund manager who believes that Europe could be on the verge of a series of 鈥渟overeign defaults鈥� 鈥� the bankruptcies of entire nations. To check the situation out, Lewis hopped on a plane and began his personal tour.

What he ended up compiling is a saga of staggering selfishness, greed, and incompetence that somehow manages 鈥� because it is Lewis doing the telling 鈥� to be every bit as engaging as it is horrifying.

First stop: Iceland. Here grossly inexperienced Icelandic bankers caused three of their global banks to collapse, leaving the nation with debts amounting to 850 percent of their gross domestic product. Iceland鈥檚 principal distinction today, says Lewis, is that it鈥檚 now 鈥渢he only nation on earth that Americans could point to and say, 鈥榃ell, at least we didn鈥檛 do that.鈥� 鈥�

Next stop is Greece 鈥� a nation saddled with an outstanding government debt of 鈥渞oughly $400 billion (and growing).鈥� How did it happen? When they thought no one was looking, explains Lewis, Greeks hoped to 鈥渢urn their government into a pi帽ata stuffed with fantastic sums and give as many citizens as possible a whack at it.鈥�

In Ireland a single bank lost $3.4 trillion, largely on bad property deals. This mess, says Lewis, 鈥渨as created by the sort of men who ignore their wives鈥� suggestions that maybe they should stop and ask for directions, for instance.鈥� (Among other indelible images from Ireland: a brand-new, abandoned village in the middle of a rain-swept former potato field. Apparently no one bothered to ascertain before building it whether or not anyone would want to live in it.)

The story Lewis follows in Germany is different in that 鈥� rather than greed or out-and-out incompetence 鈥� the Germans seem to have been guilty of massive credulity. Because German bankers tend to play by the rules, says Lewis, they couldn鈥檛 comprehend that American bankers often do not. So when 鈥渆xtremely smart traders inside Wall Street investment banks鈥� created 鈥渄iabolically complicated bets鈥� and then went in search of 鈥渟ome idiot鈥� to 鈥渢ake the other side,鈥� it turned out that 鈥渁 wildly disproportionate number of those idiots were in Germany.鈥�

Lewis finishes his tour of what he calls 鈥渢he new third world鈥� in California. There (after taking a dizzying high-speed bike ride with Arnold Schwarzenegger), he meets with the mayor of San Jose, a city so in the red that 鈥渋t could cut its debts in half and still wind up broke.鈥� How did such a thing happen?

鈥淚 know how it started,鈥� explains the mayor. 鈥淲e live near rich people so we thought we were rich.鈥�

Lewis tells his tale of financial malfeasance through a lively cast of global characters. There鈥檚 the Icelandic cod fisherman who became a currency trader on the strength of three days of training. There鈥檚 the Greek monk-turned-opportunistic capitalist. There鈥檚 the cheerful Irish retiree who was so outraged by his country鈥檚 shenanigans that he threw rotten eggs at a bunch of high-level Irish bankers. (Then he took the bus home for a cup of tea.)

Overall, 鈥淏oomerang鈥� is the story of how governments throughout the developed world allowed politicians, bankers, and ordinary citizens to pile up debts they could never possibly repay. And now the whole world will be paying the price 鈥� perhaps for a long time to come.

It鈥檚 not a pretty story, but thanks to Lewis it is a compelling one. And despite its bleak contours Lewis doesn鈥檛 imply that it鈥檚 a completely hopeless one. Future generations don鈥檛 always figure out how to solve the crises created by their elders, he points out. But then again, 鈥測ou can never rule out the possibility that they will.鈥�

Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor鈥檚 books editor.

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