Boomerang by Michael Lewis
If you are interested in the European financial crisis or merely a student of human behavior, I recommend Michael Lewis’s book Boomerang.
Lewis’s forte is telling a complex story largely through profiles of a few outrageous or misunderstood participants. He did it with baseball (Moneyball), the U.S. mortgage crisis (The Big Short), and football (The Blind Side.)
In Boomerang, Lewis explores the financial collapse in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and almost as an afterthought, the U.S.
Although the cheap credit mania of the early 21st C had many unforeseen financial consequences, Lewis slyly points out that the behaviors and subsequent reactions of Icelandic fishermen, Greek monks, Irish real estate developers, and German financiers are entirely consistent with their national characters.
Because Boomerang is a collection of essays, some of which appeared previously in Vanity Fair, it doesn’t have the strong narrative pull of Lewis’s other books. But it is a quick read that will enhance your understanding of the current economic mess in Europe.