Greek`s Tragedy

In addition to its roughly 400 billion dollars (and growing) of outstanding government debt, the Greek number cruncher had just figured out that their government owed another $800 billion or more in pensions. Add it all up and you got about 1.2 trillion dollars, or more than a 250,000 dollars for every working Greek...And those were just the official numbers; the truth is surely worse. - in CNBC

Long Term Interests Vs. Short Term Rewards

Everywhere you turn you see Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for short-term reward. - in a recent Vanity Fair article

Preserving The Status Quo, Preserving The Delusion

All the forces in the state are lined up to preserve the status quo. To preserve the delusion. - in a Vanity Fair article

Greek Railways: A Peculiar Business Model

The Greek railway makes 100 million euros in revenue and pays out 400 million euros in salaries with an average wage of €65,000 per year. - in BBC Radio

Greece: Total Moral Collapse

The structure of the Greek economy is collectivist, but the country, in spirit, is the opposite of a collective. Its real structure is every man for himself. Into this system investors had poured hundreds of billions of dollars. And the credit boom had pushed the country over the edge, into total moral collapse. - in Boomerang

Michael Lewis' 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger'

Watch Michael Lewis' 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

What caused the economic troubles in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere? Author Michael Lewis has some controversial theories involving sweeping character assessments of each nation. Lewis -- known for "Money Ball" and "The Blind Side" -- discusses his new book, "Boomerang".

The Tsunami Of Cheap Credit

The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon. It was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.

Entire countries were told the lights are out, you can do whatever you want to do and no one will ever know. - in The Spec

Comparing The Irish To The Greeks

The Irish just have a greater talent for suffering. If you imposed on the Greeks what the Irish have imposed on the Irish population, people would be getting shot. - in Reuters

Obama Is Going To Have Trouble

Obama is going to have trouble, because he has pursued much the same policy in relation to the Wall Street firms that the Bush administration did.

My feeling is that these people are more likely to energise the candidacy of some outsider, for example Elizabeth Warren, who is running for senate in Massachusetts. Her career could get very interesting very quickly, because she's been basically right about all this, yet she's been ostracised by the political system. She has this outsider, third party-ish aroma about her. - in GQ

OWS: I'm Just Surprised It Has Taken This Long

I felt the same outrage for three years working on The Big Short. Although I had this Wall Street background, I hadn't paid very much attention to the financial world. Until I started digging around and asking questions, I couldn't believe how bad it had gotten. When I published The Big Short, I sensed a level of outrage in this country that I had never felt before. I'm surprised it has taken this long for the political energy to develop, because it's so obviously outrageous what is happening. There are people at the top of the financial sector who think that the financial sector is out of control. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve has said he is sympathetic to the protesters. - in GQ Magazine

Merkel And Papandreou Are Not Going To Survive

I don't think Merkel is going to survive in Germany and I don't think Papandreou is going to survive in Greece - they have so alienated their populations. - in Reuters

The Credit Bubble: One Giant Temptation That Was Laid Before The Developed World

You can think about the credit bubble as one giant temptation that was laid before the developed world. Anybody who wanted to borrow basically could, in virtually unlimited sums. And given that temptation, different countries wanted to do different things with the money. - in NPR Books

Optimism Pays Off

Idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off. - in Boomerang, Travels In The New Third World

Video: The Big Interview

Michael Lewis on The Big Interview, WSJ.

Video Interview: Michael Lewis Talks About Occupy On Hardball

Michael Lewis talks about Occupy on Hardball and its latest book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

Greece Is Defaulting, The Only Question Is How

Greece is defaulting, right? They are restructuring. Whatever you want to call it, Greece is defaulting. The only question is how. - in Reuters

It’s Impossible To Predict What The Markets Are Going To Do

It’s impossible to predict what the markets are going to do, but if you’re asking me what smart people are doing, they have been for some time in metals, very risk-averse, out of debt entirely.

They make a persuasive case that we’re living in very perilous times. - in Bloomberg.com, October 5th

Investing In High Dividend Paying Battleship Companies That Can Withstand Recession

I’m always cautious, so I’m not a barometer of the times. I always have about 40-50 percent in the stock market, and it’s all in large-cap, high-dividend-paying battleship companies that can withstand recession. - in Bloomberg.com, October 5th