Boomerang by Michael Lewis

Generally speaking I like Michael Lewis and this book was pretty good. Mostly it was a chronicle of his visits to several countries with massive economic problems in 2011: Iceland, Greece, Germany, Ireland, and California. (OK, California is not a country but he covers San Jose and some surrounding towns with similar attention.) I think it started as a series for Vanity Fair. He covers each country in its own chapter, exploring the parts of each culture that contributed to their economic issues. Iceland's insular nature, Germany's quest for external perfection, Greece's friendly corruption - each of these qualities discussed using Lewis' personal experiences with people he meets there. Unlike many of his other books, he doesn't make any grand conclusions in this one. Rather, reading it is like getting a set of detailed emails from a really smart friend who is traveling the world to figure out what is happening in the world economy.