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 The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization :: 0385499345
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| One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree. Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree. Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations. No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
At 512 pages it is more book than it needs to be, but Mr. Friedman has a lot of stories to tell. Through his position at the New York Times he interviews a lot of people and has a lot of ideas globalization but....as stated elsewhere he goes overboard on his homegrown terms and descriptions such as the golden straightjacket. I enjoyed the first part of the book when he describes the history of gloabalization (starting over 100 years ago), and the three democratizations, as well as the change of finance from clubby relations with banks to the golden straightjacket.
But some others points should be make here. Some others have commented on the number of reviews written on this book as evidence that he has written a good book. If I had a job at the New York Times and made regular appearences on the News Hour on public telvision and made as many speaking and radio interview engagements as he, I would be widely read too.
The author tends to pick out small highly focused social issues and extrapolate these successes into the future. Lately he has been obsessed with Singapore and describes how wonderful their education system performs. It all sounds so wonderful, but this is a country without a history of free speech (the have banned the Wall St. Journal), and a young populace that is so focused on mathematics that the government has to play cupid because young people are so focused on the educational and professional treadmill that they find little time, motivation or social grace to get together with the opposite sex for dating, romance, and marriage. I seem to remember up until 1990 everyone was so impressed with everything Japanese; their educational system, their scores on international math and science exams and the money spent on research. They were so focused on these factors and the over inflated GDP figures that journalist fast converging lines of GDP and were predicting when they would meet. Doom and gloom suggested that we would soon be surpassed. What many didn't observe was the aging Japanese population and its effect on public social expenditures, the ossification of Japanese business infrastructe in the age of the world wide web and the burn out of the salary man along with the dissaffection of Japanese youth.
I remember in the 80's being lectured that they just worked harder than us and that working from 9 to 9 during the week and half days on Saturdays made them more productive. All it did was drained them of any real creative energy in which to use all of the science and math education.
So although from a historical perspective I think he chronicals his subject well I think sometimes he relies to much on interviews as his only data source. I have never read a book on globalization, political economy, or economics that did not have at least one footnote.
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Author: Guest
The book was in good condition and it was delivered well in time.
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Author: Guest
Thomas Friedman is probably the nicest journalist in the world. He interviews all the important people in the world and never will he say something harsh about them (except if your name is Osama or Yasser) . I picked up this book to get the pro-view to balance Stiglitz e.a. views on globalization. Somehow I found that Friedman, does not go under the surface phenomena, he observes plenty but does not see the power and interest mechanisms at work, everything gets the rosy gloss. He is to much a journalist whose main job is to report, not to analyse, a journalist who is to dependent on open doors to be to critical. If your sources of information are Wallstreet operators, IMF reps, Treasury secretaries and finance ministers, it is hard to be critical of the roles of these parties. For the occasional gems, the many stories, the easy reading, I give this 4 stars, but maybe mostly because Friedman is so likeable. BTW the book is despite its 5 years still very readable and probably not that outdated.
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Author: Guest
The Cold War international system was replaced in the late twentieth century by a new system: globalization. Friedman's book explains, with wit and clarity, what that means for all of us.
Some might assume that this book has been supplanted by Friedman's "The World is Flat," which is also about globalization and is more recent. But "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" hasn't been supplanted, merely supplemented. Both books are excellent; both still deserve a careful reading by all who wonder what in the world is happening in the world.
The title of the book refers to the tension between the desire to modernize (build a better Lexus car) and the desire to preserve cultural heritage (symbolized by the olive tree). That tension can exist between nations, between smaller groups of people, and even within one person, who has conflicting desires: "Any society that wants to thrive economically today must constantly be trying to build a better Lexus ... [but] if individuals feel their olive tree roots crushed, or washed out, by this global system, ... they will rise up and strangle the process."
How is globalization happening? (1) Through the democratization of technology, making it possible to build almost anything almost anywhere. Thus, for instance, Thailand in 15 years went from being a low-wage rice-producing country to being the world's second-largest producer of pickup trucks. (2) Through the democratization of finance, giving investors around the world enormous power over corporations and nations: "If a country didn't perform, the public bondholders would just sell that country's bonds, say goodbye and put their money into the bonds of a country that did perform." (3) Through the democratization of information (think: world-wide web, DVDs, satellite TV). It is no longer easy for a government to isolate its people, to keep them from knowing what's going on elsewhere.
Friedman on the internet: "Think about it: thanks to the Internet, we now have a common, global postal system ... We now have a common global shopping center ... We now have a common global library ... and we now have a common global university ..."
Friedman on the democratization of finance: "The Electronic Herd is made up of all the faceless stock, bond and currency traders sitting behind computer screens all over the globe, moving their money around ... Those companies that [abide by the rules of free market capitalism] are rewarded by the herd with investment capital. Those that don't ... are disciplined by the herd ... The most basic truth about globalization is that no one is in charge. Democracies vote about a government's policies once every two or four years. But the Electronic Herd votes every minute of every hour of every day ... The Electronic Herd turns the whole world into a parliamentary system, in which every government lives under the fear of a no-confidence vote from the herd."
Friedman on the benefits of globalization: " .. the spread of capitalism has raised living standards higher, faster and for more people than at any time in history ... poverty has fallen more in the past fifty years than in the previous five hundred ... Developing countries have progressed as fast in the past thirty years as the industrialized world did in the previous century ..."
Friedman quoting Paul Krugman, in answer to the complaints of anti-globalists about poor wages in developing countries: "But to claim that they have been impoverished by globalization ... you have to forget that those workers were even poorer before the new exporting jobs became available and ignore the fact that those who do not have access to global markets are far worse off than those who do."
Friedman on some of the dangers of globalization: "And because globalization as a culturally homogenizing and environment-devouring force is coming on so fast, there is a real danger that in just a few decades it could wipe out the ecological and cultural diversity that took millions of years of human and biological evolution to produce ... Touring the world will become like going to the zoo and seeing the same animal in every cage---a stuffed animal ... God save us from a world where the Chinese pavilion at Disney World is our only remembrance of what China was, and where the Animal Kingdom at Disney World is our only remembrance of what the jungle once was, and where the Rain Forest Cafe is the only rain forest you or your kids will ever see."
Worth the price of the book: Friedman's hilarious and insightful "five gas stations theory of the world" (see the first part of chapter 18, pages 379-380 of the paperback edition).
Friedman on terrorism, two years prior to the 9/11 attacks: "When you combine the angry men that Americanization-globalization creates with the way in which globalization can super-empower people, you have what I believe is the real, immediate national security threat to the United States in the twenty-first century: the Super-Empowered Angry Man ... "
"The Lexus and the Olive Tree" is one of the best books I have ever read and one of the most important of recent years.
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Author: Guest
It bemoans me how many misinformed people accept this dreck as gospel. But it is often said that the greatest evil lies in the most friendly, persuasive message. In other words, people who write books almost always have an agenda. While it is he/she who are silent or yell in the shadows who will tell you the truth.
Friedman's globalist nightmare dogma posing as feel good economics is really an elitist smokescreen to educate gullible, naive rap/hip hop/reality show generation kids prone to easily accept bad philosophy posing as entertainment. Such as the evil-is-hip message of musical gangsters who dominate pop culture.
Celebration of might makes right capitalism is nothing new. Only this time economic Machiavellians are not just picking our pockets. They're compromising our livelihood, our civil rights and homeland security. For an outsourced republic in debt which is no longer self reliant is poised for civil unrest crisis.
Powers that be who run this country from behind the monetary scenes started the power play by creating the Federal Reserve back in the teens. Now with NAFTA and CAFTA they are finishing the job, one that will not only prove to hasten our end days, but will single out the perpetrators when Judgment Day comes.
They see post 9/11 America and its unchecked immigration as a watershed event to sell us out to the 3rd world in order to create a new global order to offset terror with hostile nations. This ploy is all tied into an agenda of minority vs. majority. But history shows that such folly often backfires in revolution.
Western World suicide is the realist layman's definition of globalization. Pat Buchanan's The Death Of The West is a better read to comprehend the gist of what is actually happening. For Friedman's contention that we're all in this together despite who hates us won't wash if and when the west joins the 3rd world.
Doomsday analogies run rampant with anyone with a keen grasp of logic, reason and common sense. What good is it if your fellow continental man earns a slave wage 10 thousand miles away if your locale falls to ruin and is bereft of resources, assets and jobs after having been raped by multi-national corporate greed?
Honest Abe warned about the money power. He who sells our future to pad his wallet in this lifetime threatens our survival. Books of truth outweigh the lies, so readers rich or poor will know the score. Because a US of A bought and sold while minorities profit and majorities suffer is not safe or sound for any of us.
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