Michael Lewis’s “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” begins with Kyle Bass, a Texas hedge fund manager who’s buying guns and gold bricks. Bass is also betting against European governments.

Following on last year’s “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” Lewis’s exploration of the subprime mortgage debacle, “Boomerang” is a collection of articles Lewis wrote about his adventures in Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Germany, with a bonus look at the parlous state of California.

Films based on his books, like “Moneyball” and “The Blind Side,” have brought Lewis wider success. “Liar’s Poker,” about his short-lived Wall Street career, may finally start shooting. He has a couple of television series in the works and is a columnist for Bloomberg View.

It's a short, but very interesting interview...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for bringing it to my attention. The link is here.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board is scheduled to consider a notice of proposed rulemaking on the Volcker rule to restrict proprietary trading by banks at a meeting next week.

Discussion of the interagency rule, part of the FDIC’s rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Act, was included in the agenda for the Oct. 11 meeting that was released by the agency.

Let's hope they enforce it. Amongst many other things, that would end proprietary trading by JPMorgan against its own clients in the gold and silver futures market.

You've already read this 2-paragraph Bloomberg story from yesterday. Once again I thank Washington state reader S.A. for providing this story...and the link to the hard copy is here.

Before Germany's Horst Reichenbach had even stepped off the plane in Athens, the Greeks knew who was coming. He had already been given various unflattering nicknames in the Greek media, including "Third Reichenbach" and "Horst Wessel" -- a reference to the Nazi activist of that name who was posthumously elevated to martyr status. The members of his 30-strong team, meanwhile, had been compared to Nazi regional leaders.

The Greek crisis has revealed why the euro is the world's most dangerous currency. The euro was built on a foundation of debt and trickery, where economic principles were sacrificed to romantic political visions. The history of the common currency is the story of a good idea that turned into a tragedy of epic proportions.

This is Part 1 of SPIEGEL's recent cover story on the history of the common currency. The remaining installments will be published in English on Thursday and Friday.

If you have the time, this spiegel.de story is a must read. I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us...and the link is here.

With the Greek economy failing to recover to the degree expected, plenty of officials and analysts this week have fretted about whether efforts currently in place to prop up the country will be sufficient. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund joined the chorus, offering to vastly increase its role in helping the euro zone put the brakes on the accelerating debt crisis.

Borges also indicated that the IMF was prepared to change its role in ongoing efforts to get Europe's debt crisis under control. The IMF, he said, could step in to bond markets to help prevent Spain and Italy from succumbing to the crisis.

"We have a whole set of options that could be put on the table to restore confidence in those countries," Borges said.

Of course this is just another name for money printing on an unprecedented scale. This is another Roy Stephens offering from spiegel.de...and the link is here.

When Revenue Quebec raided the offices of Montreal gold bullion dealer Kitco Metals Inc. in June, it alleged that a huge tax scam was under way.

The allegation that the company had evaded GST and QST payments surprised many people [including this writer] in the gold trading industry, where Kitco had been a well-regarded dealer since its founding in 1977.

But Revenue Quebec’s actions didn’t surprise accountants and tax lawyers who deal with the department on a regular basis.

Over the past 18 months, they say, the Quebec government has been much more aggressive in trying to enforce sales tax collection – even to the extent of holding companies liable if their suppliers don’t remit what they owe.

Quebec provincial law has no effect on what happens in the rest of Canada...federally or provincially.

This is an interesting read...and if these rules are being applied to Kitco, they could be equally applied to any other company that's registered in Quebec. So what's happening to Kitco should not be taken out of context. I thank Quebec reader Howard Brown for sending me this story out of the Tuesday edition of The Montreal Gazette...and the link is here.

Eric King sent me a couple of blogs yesterday. Both of them are contained in this GATA release from late last night...so I'll let Chris do the honours once again. The link is here.

Reed sent me this 5:37 video interview he did with James Turk while he attended the Utah Monetary Summit early last week. I think it's worth your time...and the link to this youtube.com video is here.

Yesterday, thestreet.com gave industrialist, philanthropist, historian, and Reagan gold commission member Lewis E. Lehrman a few minutes to explain his five-step plan to return the United States and the world to a gold standard to eliminate currency market manipulation and volatility. It's a short clip that only runs 2:25...and is posted at the Lehrman Institute's The Gold Standard Now website. The link is here.

Writing for the Internet site of Centennial Precious Metals in Denver, USAGold.com, New York lawyer David L. Ganz, who specializes in precious metals and numismatic law, has produced a detailed and fascinating history of gold confiscation in the United Sates and commentary on the applicability of current U.S. law to gold ownership.

This is another GATA release where Chris has already done extensive heavy lifting in the preamble, part of which appears in the above paragraph. So I'll leave the rest in his capable hands...and the link is here.

Here's a story filed from Mumbai that showed up as a posting over at the Asia Times Online website early yesterday morning.

Beijing becoming host to Asia's first automatic gold vending machine - in a continent where millions are yet to see the variety that spews paper cash and potato crisps - offers the latest indication of China and India being world's leading gold buyers, despite record fluctuating prices mid-September.

Accounting for over 55% of global craving for the noble metal, India and China ensure gold remains a trusted refuge of investment in an ailing world economy, weakened further with the deepening debt crisis in Europe and United States.

This is an absolute must read from one end to the other...and I thank Swiss reader B.G. for sending it my way...and the link is here.

This is an article that appeared on September 2nd in the Investment Digest of Canada. How I missed it, I don't know. It finally showed up in my inbox yesterday courtesy of Australian reader Wesley Legrand. It was obviously written before the August 22nd peak in the precious metals market...but it's a must read nonetheless.

I spoke to John on the phone yesterday...and his October commentary is just about ready to be published as well...so I'll certainly keep an eye open for that. The link to his September commentary, posted over at the sprott.com website, is here.