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Boomerang

Travels in the New Third World
redban
Oct 03, 2014redban rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
Please, please, read Matt Taibbi's book Griftopia, then come back and evaluate Michael Lewis' narrative. This book was indeed a fun read, but the more I reflect on it the more disgusted I get. This is Michael Lewis at his worst, as least The Big Short and Flash Boys offered some insight amidst all the re-framing and omissions! Yes, it's fun to be an amateur pseudo-sociologist and chuckle at different cultural behaviors. However, when we are talking about Economics, we must consider magnitude, who controls the money, and who profits the most. The first place to examine is banking. Last time I checked it was systemic Wall Street fraud that caused the 2008 financial crisis; this was a top-down scam which is why the money all funnelled to the top through profits from predatory fraud, bailouts, and executive bonuses while everyone else suffered through the actual Recession. Please follow the money! It was all started and controlled by the big banks, like Goldman Sachs, who successfully lobbied the Federal Reserve to give these banks the power to churn out ever-more-complex-and-risky fraud investment instruments that these banks later sold to everyone else, laying all the risk to the taxpayers since the big banks have the Feds in their pockets and can negotiate taxpayer bailouts when their scams collapse. THAT is Economics, or what's left of it underneath the propaganda. With that in mind, wouldn't it be prudent to examine the big banks' role with Greece? Say... Goldman Sachs? Goldman Sachs providing short-term profit to Greek politicians in return for Greek taxpayer/infrastructure wealth? (Where else have we heard that story?). Once again, who profited the most, and who was in control? How difficult is it to follow the money? Apparently, Michael Lewis can write an entire Economics book while omitting the obvious.