The Lexus and the Olive Tree:(Paperback)

Those fearing this book is a treatise in economics, take heart. Lexus isn't about numbers or the arcane world of international banking - it's about attitude. If your attitude is open to global thinking, untrammelled by tradition or restrictive cultural ideas, you will surely succeed in improving your lifestyle. If you hold too tightly to traditional ideals, you will just as surely fail. Either way, you'd best buy, read, and understand this book. Friedman's analysis conveys the thinking of too many people. You cannot afford to ignore it.With evangelical fervour, Friedman explains how the end of the Cold War unleashed American capitalism around the globe. While "free market" capitalism had been a weapon in those years of missile diplomacy, the breakup of the Soviet Union left the American economic model without a major opponent. The collapse of the Berlin Wall, coinciding with the rise of the high speed digital communications, led to a new era of global finance. Once, "the sun never set on the British Empire." Now the Internet allows investment activity continuously and without hindrance. The market is never closed as international financial transactions occur constantly, and at light speed. And the market is open to anyone wishing to participate.Friedman argues that the American model of capitalism is the ideal version. Government must play a minimal role. Labour unions are to be quelled. No favours are to be shown to any not meeting the new performance standards. The "wounded" firm must be killed off to allow the successful to continue. There will be disruptions in peoples' lives, but emerging new businesses will pick up any slack. The reward will be growth and enhanced living standards. The system is so well established now, according to Friedman, that it can, is and will be exported successfully around the planet. Anyone it touches need only accept it without question.Global acceptance, of course, is the rub. The world isn't [yet] American. Scattered around our planet are numerous cultures who either haven't seen the light or resist its premise. These are the peoples who cling to their "olive trees" in defiance of Americanization. Friedman recognizes their concern over losing what they feel is valuable. He should, his interviewees have told him so often enough. He doesn't want them subjugated to an American ideal, he wants them to buy into the system voluntarily. Many want what the new economic system offers, he stresses. They simply have to learn how to adjust their values enough to bring America's financial methods into their own culture. How are they to achieve this feat? Replace restrictive or unresponsive governments. How this is to be achieved in the face of the pace of globalization is left unexplained.Friedman's eagerness is contagious. It seems cruel to refute a man who presents his case with such honesty and in such a readable style. He carries you along with finesse and you have no feeling of being duped by someone so forthright. He wants everybody to accept his assertions because he sincerely believes those who do will benefit from the new economics. He addresses every objection, meeting each head-on with convincing arguments. He admits, for example, that not everyone has access to the digital communications making globalization possible. Easily solved, he says. One cell 'phone per village is a good start. Even the environmental concerns are [briefly] touched - conservationists adopting capitalist tactics will save the rain forest. I'm not making this up! He means what he says.What he fails to recognize is that high speed communication, instantaneous finance and rapid economic growth carries an exacting price. Consumption at the American pace over the whole planet means production to meet the demand. That level of production is reflected in the inroads being made on the world's resources. The pace of growth is faster than "environmentalists" can cope with. Environmental issues are brought to view only when it's too late. If people sit back, allowing unfettered capitalism to buy off their future, there won't be a world left for enjoyment of that enhanced lifestyle. Friedman rejoices in the assertion that "no one is in charge" because it means no fetters to American capitalist ideals. That lack of control may sound the knell of the ideal. Capitalism, as a philosopher once noted, carries the seeds of its own destruction. Sprouts from those seeds may be found in Mark Hertsgaard's "Earth Odyssey." Read Friedman, then immediately take up Hertsgaard. Only then can you realistically assess your own attitude.

Friedman is a gifted writer. He has a talent for grasping the nub of an issue in crystal-clear, humorous prose. And yes, in a life as short and absurd as this, humor is important. For this reason, The Lexus and the Olive Tree make for an easy, enjoyable read. But for all that, Friedman's discussion lacks critical depth, historical scope, and completely downplays many of the unwanted side-effects of globalization: e.g., the environmental crisis, the spiritual crisis, and the increasing loss of control over our communities to an emerging group of corporate powerhouses. Read The Lexus and the Olive Tree if you are looking for some feel-good cheerleading on the tsunami-like process that is taking the globe by storm, but don't stop there. For a more balanced and critical understanding of the complex phenomenon we call globalization, you should also check out the books Alternatives to Economic Globalization, put out by the International Forum on Globalization, and Eco-Economy, by Lester Brown. These two books flesh out some of the major problems that come with Coca Cola, hamburgers and automobiles for all; problems we should be aware of because, unfortunately, it's not all roses.

Thomas Friedman has been a foreign correspondent with the New York Times for years, and as such has seen much of the world. Indeed, every single chapter has several stories from villagers in China, US government officials, to Silicon Valley executives.Friedman's strength is composing analogies to make globalization comprehensible. He describes the collective activities of investors, large and small, using the Internet to move money around the planet quickly and sometimes irresponsibly as the "Electronic Herd." He describes the American-style free-market capitalism that best takes advantage of globalization as the "Golden Straitjacket." He describes economies using a personal computer analogy; the basic economic system (e.g. capitalist, communist, authoritarian etc) is the "hardware" and the legal system, free press, social attitudes etc compromise the "operating system" and "software" of an economy. If a country just has an open economy with no political stability, no stock market regulation etc, it is like a computer without a surge protector when lightning strikes; the result is a meltdown.As far as Friedman's evaluation of globalization, I would describe his view as cautiously optimistic. Friedman himself states, "Generally speaking, I think it's a good thing that the sun comes up every morning. It does more good than harm, especially if you wear sunscreen and sunglasses. But even if I didn't care for the dawn there isn't much I could do to stop it. I didn't start globalization, I can't stop it - except at a huge cost to human development - and I'm not going to waste time trying." (xxi-xxii)In terms of documenting his position, the single largest problem with the book is the near total reliance on anecdotes and interviews. There is no bibliography and no footnotes in the book (well, there are some internal footnotes), merely a one and a half page list of acknowledgements for all the people he interviewed. While these definitely make the book interesting to read and personal, one always can and should ask, "Are these people representative of what's happening?" I think this sort of material should be used for purposes of highlighting points or illustration rather than the main content of a book. To be fair, Friedman does include statistics and other such information from a variety of sources (but his documentation is spotty; sometimes he will just say "The Economist says")Friedman's main thesis is that globalization is the _system_ of international relations that has replaced the Cold War system of nuclear weapons, East vs. West and the rest of it. While there is certainly strong points to support him in this (e.g. the Soviets are gone) and the greatly increased importance of international trade and the ability of markets to move capital around the world quickly, an ability made possible by new technologies (especially the Internet), I think he has probably overstated his case.To explain the title of the book, the Lexus represents all the forces of globalization; the Internet, investors, the Golden Straitjacket and so on. The Olive Tree represents the home, national identity and all the things provide a person's meaning and value in life. There needs to be a balance between these two forces. Silicon Valley executives that demand all Lexus and no Olive Tree are going to produce people with no sense of identity or self and people that only have the Olive Tree are either going to become poor or remain cut off from the major sources of growth in the world today.The economic aspect of the globalization is the primary focus of the book, so there is only limited content dedicated to the effects (positive and negative) on the environment and culture. Friedman is also _very_ critical of those who would criticize globalization; his main criticism can be summed up with this quote: "Like other ideological backlashers against globalization, Zjuganov had more attitude than workable programs, more ideas about how to distribute income than about how to generate it." (page 328)Critics of globalization ought to take note; simply saying, "This is all wrong!" is just not enough anymore. Real, workable alternatives have to be provided. I think one good example of this is the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which actually provides alternative Government budgets.Friedman concludes the book with a long discussion (Part Four: America and the System) of how America is the country best suited to take responsibility for managing globalization AND how America is the country that is ideally situated to benefit from it. He thinks that there has to some safeguards on the system to prevent it from harming too many people. It is interesting to note that Friedman added about 100 pages in this second version of the book, which is only about a year old. He needs to change it to take account of September 11, the collapse of Argentina and the bankruptcy of Enron, among other things.I have not decided what I think about globalizati...

The writer of this book, Thomas Friedman, has impressive credentials as a globetrotting journalist and expert on international economics. I'm sure that on the job he is required to be objective and impartial. But that's not the case in this heavy-handed and very arrogant book on globalization. You may find this book informative and fun to read, but beware that you're not getting anything close to the full story on this phenomenon.Friedman's writing style is mostly conversational and easy to read, though he tends to talk about his own friends and adventures way too much. Also, Friedman can't stop making up his own terminology, like Golden Straitjacket, Electronic Herd, Globalution, Glocalism, and the especially irritating DOScapital. The problem is, Friedman merely throws these terms at numerous and scattershot examples of phenomena that may possibly lend them meaning, but fails to adequately describe them himself.Parts One and Two of this book are actually quite strong as Friedman remains mostly objective in describing the rise of globalization and where things stand today. He also includes a surprising amount of coverage on the negative effects on the environment and non-Western cultures (for the time being). Unfortunately, this book collapses into a firestorm of arrogance in Part 3, which is misleadingly titled "The Backlash Against the System." Here Friedman actually spends more time criticizing those who can't or won't jump on the sacred globalization bandwagon. He uses the derogatory term "turtles" for people who are being left behind by the new economic realities around the world, and doesn't care if it's not their fault. He demeans concern for disadvantaged peoples and countries as "politically correct nonsense" (pg. 355).Some portions of this book are getting outdated, which is not Friedman's fault, but the gaps are very revealing. Several times he cites Enron as a strong global company with the world's best interests at heart, and failed to predict the tech stock crash of 2000 and how it would drastically slow down the US-led growth of the world economy (see chapter 17). This shows that Friedman's predictions in this book are already starting to fall apart. Friedman also completely avoids the issue of corporate domination, as rulings by the pro-corporate WTO have allowed multinational companies to supersede the laws of sovereign nations (such as the blatant disregard for Nigeria's environmental laws by Western oil companies). Finally, Part Four of this book descends into anemic boosterism as Friedman tries to convince us that American culture and corporations will solve all the world's ills as peoples around the world happily embrace globalization. By this point, Friedman has left objectivity far behind. His clear contempt for those who are concerned about globalization's destructive effects, and his apparent belief that American corporations only wish to solve the world's ills, prove that he has not succeeded in telling the full story. Not even close.

Thomas Friedman was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. He actually believes that people would pay attention to what he has to say, even if he weren't a columnist with the New York Times with rich and powerful friends.The basic thesis of this book is very simple and not terribly original: the Internet and other forces of globalization are breaking down barriers in an uncontrollable process. The unfettered market, with billions of consumers and tens of millions of producers are calling the shots. The days of government control are over.While Friedman has concerns about this future, he sees the basic picture in a positive light. The real problem is the people who want to turn back the clock, the wallbuilders. According to Friedman, these are people who would try to erect trade barriers to slow the process of globalization. In doing so, they hope to maintain a greater degree of economic security. The villians Friedman has in mind are largely unions that try to preserve decent jobs and wage for auto workers, steel workers, textile workers and the like. But, according to Friedman, these types of protectionist barriers are futile in the days of globalization.While Friedman can express sympathy for the plight of these workers, he won't shrink from his conclusion that their efforts at protectionism are misguided, and harmful to the most needy people in the world, the poor in developing nations.Friedman's arrogance on this point is difficult to stomach, since it is so thoroughly encased in ignorance. Friedman is a man who makes his living entirely as a result of the existance of "walls" or protectionist barriers, specifically copyrights. If the heavy hand of the state were not there to enforce Mr. Friedman's copyrights, no one would pay for his books. They could freely xerox them, or better yet, download them off the Internet. Similarly, the New York Times would not fare particularly well without copyright protection. Anyone could instantly reproduce any or all of its content and sell their own ad space (at a much lower price) in a New York Times clone.Remarkably, while engaging in tirades against the African-American or Hispanic women who want to protect their $8 an hour textile jobs, Friedman never seems to recognize that he profits immensely as a result of a much more inefficient form of protectionism. Tariff barriers or quotas in the United States rarely raise the price of an item by more than 15-20 percent. By contrast, copyright raises the price by several hundred percent. We all know that copyrights provide an incentive to engage in creative work, but there are other, more efficient ways to create such incentives.Friedman's professed concern for the poor in the developing world is directly at odds with his silence on this issue. A major thrust of recent U.S. trade policy has been to enforce U.S. type copyrights and patents throughout the developing world. This will be a huge drain on the economies of developing nations, as it will drain tens of billions of dollars in royalty payments and licensing fees from the world's poorest nations. Even worse, it will be a death sentence for millions of people suffering from AIDS and other diseases, as patent protection raises the price of life-saving drugs well beyond the means of the poor in the developing world.If you want to hear the main argument in this book, find some Yuppie male, buy him a few beers and ask him about the state of the world. You'll get all the main points, but in a manner that will probably be more cogent and succint.If you really feel you need to read this book, in the interest of simple justice, do not buy it. Borrow a copy from a friend or the library. Get it scanned into your computer, and then read it on screen or print it out. Also, e-mail copies to friends who feel a similar need to read the book. A man who is so anxious to see the forces of the Internet and globalization tear down barriers, should not be allowed to profit from those barriers.