In boomerang, Michael Lewis explores some of the sovereign players in the financial markets meltdown of 2009. He plays up the country stereotypes. Iceland is populated by men that do not listen to their wive.s After conquering the fishing industry, they figure they must be naturally gifted at investment banking also. Greek are loners who think everyone else is cheating, so must cheat themselves. The Irish had always suffered, yet they had a rapid economic turnaround. They guaranteed all banks, leaving each long-suffering Irishman with a huge share of debt.One of the final discussions deal with California and local governments. Arnold Schwarzenegger thought he had a mandate to fix things. However, he discovered that people and politicians simply wanted a lot of services and don't want to pay for them. Thus there is a lot of future debt and a willingness to shift things to local governments. These governments end up spending hugs amounts paying for their current and former employees. Thus cities like San Jose can't afford to staff new community centers. Vallejo couldn't afford anything and ended up bankrupt.
Alas governments are just behaving like individuals who go into debt to pay for things later.
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