Financial journalist and award-winning author Michael Lewis is out with a new book called "Boomerang." And based solely on its RAVE book review in The New York Times, it sounds awesome and relevant. The new book traces the origins of the European sovereign debt crisis, giving "the reader a guided tour through some of the disparate places hard hit by the fiscal tsunami of 2008..."
The prime example of course is Greece. Lewis writes about how Greece rang up massive debt, according to a review by The New York Times:
Greece, Mr. Lewis writes, ran up astonishing debts — from high-paying government jobs and generous pensions, as well as waste, bribery and theft — that came to “about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for every working Greek.” In just the last 12 years, he says, “the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms” with the average government job now paying almost three times the average private sector job. Those who work in jobs classified as “arduous” can retire and start collecting pensions, he adds, “as early as 55 for men and 50 for women”; more than 600 Greek professions have somehow managed “to get themselves classified as arduous: hairdressers, radio announcers, waiters, musicians, and on and on and on.”
Stories of Greece's years-long public sector corruption will no doubt infuriate the public at exactly the right time, as Europe contemplates whether to let Greece default or bail it out…
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-lewis-new-book-2011-9#ixzz1ZAWUNwpY
No comments:
Post a Comment