If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a whole country gets handed a black Amex with no limit and no supervision, you need to read Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. Michael Lewis wrote this thing over a decade ago, but honestly? It feels more like a prophecy today.
Basically, while The Big Short was about the guys who saw the 2008 crash coming, Boomerang is about what happened when that same toxic financial energy hit people who weren't Wall Street sharks. It’s about fishermen in Iceland, monks in Greece, and even firefighters in California.
Lewis has this way of making macroeconomics sound like a gossip column. It's great.
The Time Iceland Tried to Become a Hedge Fund
Iceland is a tiny rock in the middle of the Atlantic. For centuries, they fished. That’s what they did. But around 2003, they decided they were actually financial geniuses.
You’ve gotta love the sheer audacity.
Lewis describes how Icelandic men, who basically have this "alpha male" Viking vibe, abandoned their boats and started trading pieces of paper. They weren't even trading real stuff half the time. One of the best metaphors in the book involves a dog and a cat.
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Imagine I have a dog and you have a cat. We both decide they’re worth a billion dollars. I sell you my dog for a billion, and I buy your cat for a billion. Suddenly, we aren't just pet owners—we’re billionaires with two billion in assets on the books.
That was Icelandic banking in a nutshell. When the music stopped in 2008, this nation of 300,000 people was sitting on roughly $100 billion in losses. That's about $330,000 for every man, woman, and child.
It’s insane.
Greece and the Art of the Piñata
If Iceland was a case of "alpha males" gone wild, Greece was a different beast entirely. Lewis portrays Greece as a country where nobody paid taxes and everyone expected the government to buy the drinks.
He visits a monastery—Vatopaidi—that somehow became a major real estate player and essentially helped topple a government. It sounds like a Dan Brown novel but with more spreadsheets.
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The numbers are just stupid.
The Greek national railway was earning about 100 million euros a year but spending 800 million. Most of that was just wages. Lewis found that there were over 600 "arduous" professions in Greece—including hairdressers and radio announcers—that allowed people to retire in their 50s with full pensions.
When the Boomerang of debt finally swung back, it hit a society that basically had no civic trust left. Everyone was in on the grift, so nobody could really complain when the bill came due.
The "Good" Germans and the California Nightmare
Then you have Germany. Lewis’s take on Germany is... well, it’s a bit weird. He talks a lot about their obsession with rules and, uh, certain biological functions. But his main point is solid: German banks were the "dumb money."
They were the ones buying the toxic subprime waste from Wall Street. They did it because the paperwork looked right. If it was rated AAA, the Germans believed it. They didn't realize the guys in New York were laughing at them.
The book ends in a place that feels way too close to home: California.
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He looks at cities like Vallejo and San Jose. These are wealthy places! But they were (and in many ways still are) being eaten alive by public pension obligations they can’t possibly pay. It’s the same story as Greece, just with better weather and more Teslas.
Why You Should Care Now
Look, it’s 2026. We’ve seen more "once-in-a-lifetime" financial events in the last few years than anyone should have to deal with. Michael Lewis wrote this book to show that financial crises aren't just about math. They’re about human nature.
When money is "free," we all reveal who we really are.
- Icelanders revealed they wanted to be conquerors.
- Greeks revealed they wanted to live off the state.
- Americans revealed they wanted houses they couldn't afford.
Actionable Takeaways for the Modern Reader
If you're looking for a way to apply the lessons of Boomerang to your own life today, start here:
- Watch the "Alpha" Trap: When you see a market where everyone suddenly thinks they're a genius (think 2021 crypto or 2024 AI bubbles), remember the Icelandic fishermen. If it looks like people are just trading cats for dogs, get out.
- Audit the "Rules": Just because something is "regulated" or "rated" doesn't mean it's safe. The German banks followed every rule and still lost billions. Do your own due diligence.
- Check Your Own Leverage: Debt feels like a superpower when things are going up. It feels like a noose when they aren't. Lewis’s main point is that leverage "imports the future into the present." Don't spend your 2030 income in 2026.
Honestly, the book is a quick read. It’s funny, it’s mean in a way that feels deserved, and it’ll make you look at your bank account—and your local government—a lot more closely.
To get the most out of these insights, you should grab a copy of Boomerang and compare the debt levels Lewis mentions to current 2026 stats for the same regions. You’ll likely find that while the names have changed, the patterns of human greed and delusion are exactly the same as they were fifteen years ago.