The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman. 

3/5 rating. 

Book #131 of 2019. Read November 21, 2019.

This book really strained my rating system. Usually I have 3/5 mean that it wasn’t a waste of MY time, so I rated it as such; but I gotta be honest I figure it would really be a waste of most people’s time to read this book.

Thomas talks throughout this book about globalization: exactly what it is, it’s unstoppable force, and why it will be such a powerful good for people around the world. He specifically goes into a deep-dive on what the people who are tied so deeply into their heritage and history (their olive trees) will need to do to succeed in such an inter-connected world.

This book was written in 1999 and 2000, so it is interesting to see how spot-on Thomas was to how the world would change and what importance being a part of the “Electronic Herd” is for people, businesses, and countries.

All of this being said, it was almost painful getting through large portions of this book because of how long it was: 475 pages! If it had been about 100-150 pages, it probably would have been much better, but as it was it kind of just pounded home his points in way too many different examples and long explanations.

As I said, it wasn’t a waste of my time, but unless you are a complete nerd like me and REALLY interested in globalization and economics, you can probably happily skip this book!

Quotes:

“One afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, scrolling through the news wires on my computer, when I noticed two items move on Reuters, one right after the other: 

Dollar Ends Higher on Optimism over Trade Talks

New York (Reuters) – The dollar finished higher against most leading currencies Friday as optimism grew that Washington and Tokyo would reach a trade agreement.

Blue Chip Stocks End Lower on Uncertainty over Trade Talks

New York (Reuters) – Blue chip stocks closed lower Friday amid uncertainty over U.S.-Japan trade talks ahead of a midnight deadline for possible sanctions.”

“[A] country must either adopt, or be seen as moving toward, the following golden: making the private sector the primary engine of its economic growth, maintaining a low rate of inflation and price stability, shrinking the size of its state bureaucracy, maintaining as close to a balanced budget as possible, if not a surplus, eliminating and lowering tariffs on imported goods, removing restrictions on foreign investment, getting rid of quotas and domestic monopolies, increasing exports, privatizing state-owned industries and utilities, deregulating capital markets, making its currency convertible, opening its industries, stocks and bond markets to direct foreign ownership and investment, deregulating its economy to promote as much domestic competition as possible, eliminating government corruption, subsidies and kickbacks as possible, opening its banking and telecommunications systems to private ownership and competition and allowing its citizens to choose from an array of competing pension options and foreign-run pension and mutual funds.”

“Rick and Marion, welcome to the Electronic Herd. I am glad they did well, but the fact is this proliferation of investment instruments has lulled a lot of Rick and Marions into markets they have no business being in. I cannot prove this, but I would guess that never before in history have more people invested more money in more places that they cannot find on the map.”

“Anwar told me that as Mahathir kept accusing the Jews, Soros and other conspirators of deliberately driving down the Malaysian currency, Anwar and some of his colleagues finally went to Mahathir with a chart and said to him something like the following: ‘Look, you said this about Soros on Monday, and the Malaysian ringgit fell to here. You said this about the Jews on Tuesday, and the ringgit fell to here. You said this about global investors on Wednesday, and the ringgit fell to here. SHUT UP!’”

“No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s.”

“(Globalization does not end geopolitics.)(ital)”

“So let me amend the Golden Arches Theory in light of Kosovo and what are sure to be future Kosovos. I would restate it as follows: People in McDonald’s countries don’t like to fight wars anymore, they prefer to wait in line for burgers – (and those leaders or countries which ignore that fact will pay a much, much higher price than they think.)”

“If you cut the forests, you can grow them back, but you lose the biodiversity – the plants, the animals. I’m worried that in a decade, we’ll all be environmentally aware, but there’ll be nothing left to defend.”

“Keeping up with the Joneses’ has shifted from striving to match the consumption of a next-door neighbor to pursuing the lifestyles of the rich and famous depicted in movies and television shows.”

“And as I thought about all this on the tarmac of Kigali Airport, I said to myself, ‘Well, my freshmen Republican friends, come to Africa – it’s a freshmen Republican’s paradise.’ Yes sir, nobody in Liberia pays taxes. There’s no gun control in Angola. There’s no welfare as we know it in Burundi and no big government to interfere in the market in Rwanda.”

“This view that Washington is there enemy, and that any tax dollar paid there is a tax dollar wasted, is grotesque.”

“A healthy global society is one that can balance the Lexus and the olive tree all the time, and there is no better model for this on earth today than America. And that’s why I believe so strongly that for globalization to be sustainable America must be at its best – today, tomorrow, all the time. It not only can be, it must be, a beacon for the whole world. Let us not squander this precious legacy.”

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