The Lexus And The Olive Tree : Understanding Globalization

Rating:
Summary: not nearly as good as Beirut to Jerusalem
Review: Friedman wrote a brilliant book before this called from Beirut to Jerusalem. He spent his whole life studying the middle east, and he lived in Lebanon and Israel for years as a reporter. He (deservedly) won fame and fortune for that book. It's revolutionary. If you haven't read it, do so. Then, the new york times brought him back to the US, and made him their globalization expert. Why? Who knows. He spoke to some economists and other experts, travelled a lot, and got really excited about his success and new job.

This book, about globalization, isn't nearly as good.

Oh sure, he can still Write, and the book is easy to read, full of entertaining anecdotes, and fairly thought provoking. It's when he tries to pull together his Grand Theories of Everything that it becomes embarrassing. He just doesn't seem to have a good grasp of his subject. When talking about free trade, for example, his argument goes something like this: "Well, it works and nothing else does, so you'd have to be pretty stupid to want anything else because it doesn't work. It just doesn't. So there. Now, let me tell you about that cool, cool time when I was in a small village in Kazakhstan..."

Thomas himself is much more present in this book. In Beirut, he took a back seat to his description of the people and events he was seeing. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, there is a distinct thread running through it: Look at me, look at me, how cool am I? Frankly, I think he deserves to be a tad conceited, but it affects his writing.

Still, this is still an interesting book. There's nothing better out there as far as I'm aware. I just wish I hadn't read his other book first. It's sad to see someone go from brilliant to good.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer for the novice and interested alike
Review: Friedman's book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" is an excellent illustration of basic globalization principles and strategies, told in simple and easy language for the layman's point of view. The heavy use of anecdotal evidence also lends a comfortable "storytelling" perspective that generally keeps the reader's attention focused.

One of the things that interested me about this book was Friedman's attempted placement of his work alongside other authors on similar subjects. In the introduction, he plainly states that his purpose in writing this book is not only to fully explain the concept, analysis, and anecdotal evidence of globalization, but also to add to the body of knowledge that is shaping and defining the post-Cold War era in history. Citing other seminal works that have been described as groundbreaking descriptions of this time in history, he lists 3 other books that he hopes to complement on that very subject: "The End of History and the Last Man" by Francis Fukuyama, "The Clash of Civilizations" by Samuel Huntington, and the collected works (books and articles) of Robert Kaplan. In truth, I have recently read all 3 of these selections and can honestly agree that Friedman has successfully accomplished his goal.

For the most part, I already understood globalization (and how it ties in with the greater subject of economics and capitalism) so I thought I might get bored with his tedious simplification and excessive detail... but surprisingly, I found this not to be the case. Overall, I found Friedman to definitely be an expert on the subject, which is often rare for newspaper journalists - and especially the NY Times foreign affairs correspondent who covers the entire planet. This subject is less about "foreign affairs" than economics... but then again, Friedman was the Wall Street correspondent at the Times before he took the foreign affairs desk.

One caveat, though.... this book was published before 9/11 - the first edition was 1999 and the 2nd was in early 2001. So one or two of his predictions didn't pan out, but as to globalization I don't think he'd change much in a 3rd edition. I can only think of one subject in the book where Friedman was dead wrong - his idea that stronger US relations with eastern Europe (specifically the Baltic states) was a bad idea because it might antagonize Russia. Turns out NATO expansion into Europe has gone relatively well... and Russia has practically eliminated their early protestations since 9/11, and in fact are already looking to stronger ties directly with NATO.

Having read those other 3 works, I can honestly say that Friedman has penned a true masterpiece on the post-Cold War body of knowledge. And Friedman is mostly pro-globalization too (unlike the anarchist WTO and G-8 protestors that get all the press), even when he objectively presents both sides of the argument. His overall thesis is basically this: globalization is here to stay, there really isn't anything people can do to stop it (much like the sunrise), so it's best to get used to it, understand it, and realize how you can find yourself moving with it instead of against it. In the end, Friedman uses his considerable journalistic (if not storytelling) talents to offer a subject where readers at all levels of economic expertise can find something to enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A must read to understand today's events
Review: Friedman's book is an engaging look at what globalization means in this post Cold War world. By describing the rise of global markets through examining the world through six different "lenses," he is able to take a complex subject and make an understandable and compelling argument for his view that globalization is like the dawn. In his own words "even if I didn't much care for the dawn there isn't much I could do about it."

As the New York Times foreign affairs columnist he is able to bring a wealth of experience and personal observation to the book, and he fills it with interesting, compelling, and sometimes disturbing anecdotes from his travels and relationships with foreign leaders.

He makes a case that through the democratization of finance, information, and technology, we have an increasingly interdependent global economy, fraught with both great rewards, and great dangers. Friedman artfully describes those groups of people who are well positioned for success (and also risk) in the global economy, "gazelles and lions," who have to run every day to eat or to avoid being eaten. The author also describes those people who are not positioned to compete in the global economy (the "Fast World") and see globalization as an unseen and uncontrollable force increasingly threatening the lives and livelihood of both themselves and their children (turtles, trying to avoid becoming road kill).

Friedman explains the danger to a backlash against globalization and gives real suggestions about things to change in our political construct, and things to preserve and strengthen. In his words "America, at its best is not just a country. It's a spiritual value and role model. It's a nation that is not afraid to go to the moon, but also still loves to come home for Little League."

I finished the book with tears in my eyes. The strength of his vision is compelling and this book is the first I have read that has both defined, and accurately caught the start of, this new system of globalization.

Rating:
Summary: Everything fell apart
Review: I read the Lexus and the Olive Tree for a final paper on globalization for my Latin American Economies class. This book was very one-sided i.e. the side that supported American style capitalism as the savior of the world and rejecting, in my opinion, the superior European and Japanese versions. With the U.S. economy on the ropes and the collapse of Enron, a company Thomas Friedman praised over and over as the model corporation in a globalized world, Friedman picture now seems very suspect. His shut-up and put-up prescription for the rest of the world and his lack of a nuance understanding of capitalism really put me off. And worst of all he supports his theories with arguments with a mixture of Eco 101 and god ole American "common-sense." Despite its shortcomings this book is important to read not because it reveals great truths about globalization but because it reveals how globalization is perceived in the media. After reading this book read: One World Ready or Not

Rating:
Summary: Basic, almost insulting.
Review: In the book friedman describes several interesting points ranging from the trade offs of culture and capitalism, to the basic efficiencies of different economies, though the way he describes things is almost insulting. The metaphors and anologies used seem to indicate a journalist writing for the elderly or those who have no idea what a digital medium is. Being a young student this quickly wore on my attention span.

I tried to read the book twice and failed becuase I get so fed up with his style. For example, he has a tendency to end paragraphs with exclamations that are as corny as the saying "click on that!" This drove me to the point where I would read the entire paragraph except the last sentence, obviously not the best way to read a book.

The good news is that the liberal bias seen in From Beirut to Jeuraslim(sp) is nowhere to be seen, replaced by ideas that only the free-est of the free markets would survive, a complete contradiction to his pro-arab Beruit book.

I would recommend milton friedman over thomas friedman, anyday, if you want an accurate portrayal of the power of the free market.

Rating:
Summary: questions not answered
Review: In this book, Thomas L. Friedman, a historian by education and a journalist by trade, tries to analyze many of the socio-political, economic, environmental, financial, and human benefits and deficits of modern globalization. He uses several metaphors to illustrate his points, some more effective than others.

For Friedman, the "Lexus" symbolizes the striving of nations, states, companies, and individuals toward globalization--striving to perfect their efficiency and success in an interconnected world. The "Olive Tree" represents a sort of grass-roots striving to preserve one's land, culture, and traditions and to move away from globalization. The "Turtle" symbolizes those who, for one reason or another, cannot "get with the program" fast enough for the globalized world. "MIDS," which stands for Microchip Immune Deficiency (an offhand manipulation of the AIDS acronym) is a disease nations, states, companies, and individuals have when they lack the infrastructure or inclination to quickly get globalized and efficient, often as a result of living in a Cold War system in a post-Cold War world. The "Golden Straightjacket" refers to the political, economic, and financial reforms and norms that must be adopted by any nation/state wishing to have continued success and growth in the globalized world. The "Electronic Herd" is the electronically super-connected, invisible force of the global market (actually investors and traders) which controls the success of the state or individual's economy or market.

Friedman relies on extensive quotations from financial experts, heads of corporations, and statesmen; articles from sources such as The Economist; and on his own anecdotes and observations to support most of his generalizations and theories. These theories, valid or not, are not often supported by statistics.

While there is an economic focus to the book--because of Friedman's numerous references to the many financial crises of various countries in the 1990s and how financial institutions and monetary systems influenced or were influenced by these events--there is also an undercurrent of concern over the social and environmental ramifications of globalization. It is difficult to make an overall judgment about Friedman's true opinion about globalization because of the book's disjointed nature and because of his seemingly changing and often contradictory opinions about the subject.

Friedman himself says that globalization is contradictory, both as an inevitable force of destruction and rapid change and also as a potential force for good. When he refers to the good part of globalization, Friedman is often referring to the Internet. He says it can be used as a means of empowering individuals, and I agree. ...

Friedman acknowledges that globalization does seem to empower nations like the United States which have had a much longer time to prepare for this phenomenon socially. ... Whether the fast-track "globalization" of these developed countries does more good for their residents than harm is not answered adequately by Friedman. His anecdote about a little old lady in Hanoi using a bathroom scale to weight people on the street for a dollar does not illustrate for me the success of globalization, it merely illustrates the desperation of people in developing nations to survive at any cost--... It also illustrates Friedman's emotional disconnect from the reality of the underclass.

Friedman does comes up with some ideas about how to integrate globalization with the existing world cultures, melding the needs to the Lexus and the Olive Tree (he calls this "glocalization"). But, in my opinion, he does not focus enough on education. ...

Unlike Friedman, I don't think globalization is inevitable. ... While Friedman's book provides a unique perspective on the globalization of politics, finance, and economics, it leaves several important questions unanswered, such as: "Why aren't we educating the world?"

Rating:
Summary: Keith Whyte's Review
Review: The Lexus and the Olive Tree deals with current topics of international trade and commerce. It is a well written book that discusses recent economic events in Asia and the rest of the world and goes in depth with the impacts it has had. The author, Thomas l. Friedman uses many factual events to support his arguments. He is knowledgeable of international trade and experience in foreign affairs. I was interested in what Thomas Friedman has to say about how globalization has changed the world and has brought the world closer since the cold war. When the United States and the Soviet Union were going through the cold war, the world was divided. This book goes deep into the Cold War and how it affected the planet. It also discusses globalization and how it has brought the world closer together. It also produces facts for support. The author is able to give examples of his own experiences to make his point. The stories Thomas Friedman tell are interesting and relative to what he talks about. The stories are relevant to what he is discussing at the time. The stories are easy to understand and will keep you wanting to know what the author has seen and done in other countries as well as this one.

This book is well detailed and fun to read. Most economic books are not as enjoyable to read this book. Each chapter is well detailed with stories that come to life. I like how the author delivers the message. He narrates his book as if he ws an old man sitting at a camp fire telling his grandchildren stories of what he has done and the places he has gone.

Rating:
Summary: Sort of rambles, has some great anecdotes and analogies.
Review: The Lexus and the Olive Tree is an important book, but in many ways Thomas Friedman renders his own creation irrelevant. He is almost schizophrenic in his writing style, arguing with himself as if he has yet to make up his mind about the things he is writing. In some ways, it seems like he just prefers to share anecdotes (which are vivid and usually humorous) from his travels around the world, rather than the typical kinds of fact-based research one finds in these sort of books. The result is that the reader can understand some of the concepts, but they can also get a little tedious, and it is hard to translate the anecdotes into something that I assimilate into my worldview.

Furthermore, Friedman seems to love to quote people at length, but one wonders if indeed he is quoting word-for-word, or if he is just sort of crafting something to fit his book out of a vaguely similar comment the person may have made. But, then one thinks again, because the book is almost a little choppy in places because Friedman quotes random characters from all around the world for pages upon pages. One would prefer that he just paraphrase or use shorter quotes.

Because it was written 5 years ago, some of the reading is tedious (he explains what a DVD player is, for example), and in some areas he seems to be caught up in the "irrational" dot-com whirlwind. In his revised version of the book, it sort of just drones on, pontificating for about 20-30 pages too much. Thomas Friedman is a very personable guy, and he has a lot of interesting things to say about the world, but honestly, one doesn't care for his own political/religious philosophy being injected, mostly toward the end of the book. It was just awkward to read through the final chapter or two; the book has multiple personality disorder in some regards.

One almost feel like the book is written for an audience of Dick Gephardts. He wants to win the protectionist wing of the Democratic Party over with the book. He seems to be speaking to them. Maybe he is speaking to Republicans as well, but if so, he lectures a little too sanctimoniously on the environment and the notion of a social safety net (he calls Republicans "mean-spirited voices... uninterested in any compromise" and tries to argue that Africa, with its near-anarchy in places, would be a Republican's dream) to win conservatives over entirely. He sort of just randomly breaks into prostheletyzing, arguing, for example, "That the NRA should feel guilty about the Colombine massacres went without saying." Why even go into that? That's just tacky.

Finally, a reader gets sort of annoyed reading his own made-up terms (Golden Straightjacket, Electronic Herd, etc.), over and over, particularly since none of them caught on whatsoever in the past half-decade since the book came out.

Some of it is dead on, though, particularly when he writes as an observer of the world rather than an activist, and this book is a good way to conceptualize globalization for those who are having a hard time adapting their political ideology in the post-Cold War era. In general, I'd say The Lexus and the Olive Tree starts off strong, ends weak, and that's a shame. It was on track to get 5 stars from me, even with the early tributes to Al Gore and other political cheap shots, but the final part of the book was just THAT lacking, that it falls to 3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Triumphalism or inconvenient truths for righteous lefties?
Review: Thomas Friedman's book about globalization, The Lexus and The Olive Tree (2nd. ed, 2000), is a fascinating explanation of the forces - the pre-eminence of market capitalism, the information and telecommunications revolutions, the rise of an "Electronic Herd" of capital, and countries' adoption of "operating systems" to attract capital - that make up the system of globalization that is sweeping the globe. He writes about how more and more countries have accepted what he calls a "Golden Straightjacket" of policy prescriptions - open markets, balanced budgets, deregulation and privatisation, free trade, elimination of corruption, subsidies and kickbacks, etc., - in order to be part of the developing global system.

Globalization brings promises and threats, and has evoked strong responses. I feel like a new convert, who urgently wants others to share revelations offered by the Book. When I told a close relative and a good friend about the book, both were deeply suspicious. Neither has read it. One has read reviews in the left-wing journal The Nation and elsewhere, that refer to Friedman's line as "triumphalism." That means an arrogant view that US-driven market capitalism has decisively repudiated communism and socialism, and the tide of globalization, with McDonalds, Taco Bells, cellphones and so on, is a rising tide that will raise all boats. The other of my critics is angry about the gap between rich and poor, Reaganism and the dismantling of the social safety net. He angrily rejects the notion that market capitalism really proved its superiority to communist regimes that were able to provide universal literacy and healthcare for poor populations in Russia, China and Cuba. To him, a book that purports to depict globalization as a seemingly inexorable tide of progress, and fails to focus on the immorality of capitalism and disparities of wealth, is deeply immoral.

These critics want explanations that are consistent with their sympathies, and that repudiate what they consider to be evils: for indigenous cultures; against McDonalds; against the hegemony of American English and American culture; for trade unions; for Third World debt relief; for micro-lending; against SUVs; against attaching structural conditions to development loans; against American power; against pressures to reduce taxes, balance budgets and eliminate tarriffs and trade barriers. And so on.

Can you see where I'm headed? Its my arrogant conceit: I'm the rational, sensible, informed one, seeking truth with an open mind. I read the book to learn about globalization. I am eager to read other books that put in question Friedman's assumptions and conclusions; until I'm persuaded to the contrary, I accept his book as a contribution to knowledge. I do not favour global cultural homogenization and Americanization, and I would like to see markets help to create wealth and distribute wealth more broadly. However, I am not inclined to shoot the messenger who says that free market capitalism is the preeminent system for creating and distributing wealth, and that in spite of the disparities, it may do more for poor people than alternative systems could.

Some people prefer moral righteousness. It is no doubt more satisfying to be angry and morally righteous, than to have pious assumptions put in question by inconvenient facts.