Making sense of the financial crisis

The core of Greece's problems is still there. They will have to become Germans if they want to stay in the Euro zone, but everything indicates that this will never happen.

That leaves us with the US. As opposed to small countries like Iceland, Greece and Ireland, it is near impossible to get the core of the US financial crisis into a thirty-odd pages chapter, so Lewis focuses on one aspect: the public sector in California, which has a lot of similarities with the Greek situation in that it carries the weight of a completely unsustainable pension scheme. San Jose offers a clear example: "The budget turns on the pay of public safety workers: the police and firefighters now eat 75 percent of all discretionary spending." No surprise then that in 2011, the average Californian had debts of $78,000 against an income of $43,000. Attempts to change don't stand a chance as the political stakes are too high.

If you still think that the field of finance is by definition too dry to produce a good laugh, Boomerang will change your mind. Those who are familiar with Lewis' breakthrough book Liar's Poker (1989), in which he gives us a very clear insight into the mechanisms of the stock market, will be familiar with his very readable style and great sense of humour. His book on short selling, The Big Short (2010), received just as much praise, but for someone not familiar with a lot of the mechanisms at hand, I found it hard to get a grip on the material. Fortunately Boomerang is much more in line with Liar's Poker.

I am happy to return to the Germans for a last example of Lewis' humour, when he tells how a German insurance company organised a party for its best producers, a party offering food, golf and prostitutes. Nothing new. However, this occasion carried an extra element. "What was striking was how organized the German event was. The company tied white and yellow and red ribbons to the prostitutes to indicate which ones were available to which men. After each sexual encounter the prostitute received a stamp on her arm to indicate how often she had been used." My god, don't you just love German efficiency!