Boomerang - Michael Lewis

Boomerang by Michael Lewis

Has anyone read Boomerang by Michael Lewis?

The book was mentioned on PBS last night. I wonder about the reaction people in Iceland and the friends of Iceland here in the US might be having to what he says in the book.

He apparently stated in the book that Iceland is a nation of 300,000 people that turned itself into a banking hub by recycling the world's money to the Icelanders themselves saying that they borrowed the money and then used that money to acquire things in other countries which, he claims, started the whole European banking crisis.

He also said apparently that Icelanders themselves told him that their own Icelandic history and culture and DNA left them very well suited to become investment bankers. He said that Icelanders told him also that they were inbred and have a sense of themselves as genetically special because of their history of risk taking. They walked away from a lot of their debts and are in a deep economic slump still, according to Mr. Lewis.

He also spends a good deal of time examining several other European cultures including Greece, Ireland, France, Germany and others and their role in the current really bad financial condition that the whole European continent is currently in and the possible repercussions for the United States if things get worse over there.

I have not read the book. I hope that if it says those things about our beloved Iceland that people will not blame the Icelanders themselves but rather, perhaps, instead their bank. To blame the Icelanders would be akin to blaming the people of the United States because of the excesses of Wall Street and our own banks and banking system and perhaps especially the US politicians.