Monday, October 24, 2011

ECONMICS - World View, New Book

"Michael Lewis' 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger'" PBS Newshour 10/21/2011

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And finally tonight, a trip to Europe in search of the sources of the debt crisis.

As we reported earlier, European finance ministers approved a new batch of bailout loans for Greece today. But they put off some even bigger decisions about troubled countries and banks, and the very future of the euro.

A new book explores the roots of the problem.

And NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story, part of his reporting on Making Sense of financial news.

PAUL SOLMAN (Newshour): "Liar's Poker," "The Blind Side," "The Big Short" all by Michael Lewis, whose new much-hyped book about global debt is called "Boomerang."

We rendezvoused at an aptly named Washington restaurant, Old Europe.

"Boomerang." Why "Boomerang"?

MICHAEL LEWIS, "Boomerang": It's an image that captures the spirit of this moment, that this money was thrown out in hope and it's coming back in anger.

PAUL SOLMAN: Germany, Greece, Ireland, these major players each get a chapter and a sweeping character assessment. The book starts, though, with the first to go belly up, Iceland, a nation of 300,000 that turned itself into a banking hub, recycling the world's money to Icelanders themselves, a breed apart, says Lewis.

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