Rating: 
Summary: This is a pretty awful book
Review: Wow, what a waste of time. There were some good ideas in the book but they could have been easily written in a 10 page essay with no loss of depth. This guy should stick to writing for his newspaper.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfectly put on the table
Review: Friedman describe the process the world is going through in detail and explains how globalization began and where it is going. Through own experiences he illustrates what globalization is really about.
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Summary: Cheerleading Globalization
Review: 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.
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Summary: One sided and takes the economists' worldview
Review: What Friedman fails to mention in the book is that globalization is destroying more countries than it helps. Countries like Venezuela, Argentina, and many others that that the WTO and the IMF have "helped", which are now impoverished.He also fails to mention that the United States makes it's own globalization strategies, pushing for other, "southern" countries to open up their borders to foreign banking, investments, and currency, while maintaining an isolationist policy towards protecting it's domestic interests. Friedman is far too much the economist to write about such a topic. Pure economics falls apart under any kind of real world scrutiny, because of a resistance to the classification techniques used by the science. Without a touch of humanity, and real understanding of human trends, the push toward globalization that Friedman supports is going to destroy more economies than it saves. Save yourself the money, read Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and "Whose Trade Organization" by Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. The former will give you a view from the other side, and the latter will give you some heavy background... ... and I take it back, buy "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" and read it like I did so you can base your arguments on more than one-sided information when somebody proclaims the glory of globalization to you.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetetive, Informative, but as always, slightly biased
Review: It is easy to be impressed with Friedman's insight into global affairs. With his knowledge stemming from a job asforeign affairs columnist for the New York Times, he communicates depth and rigor not nearly matched by any other author on the subject of globalization. However, at times he repeats the stories of his travels and his underlying concepts to the point where it becomes unnecessary to read them again. This does reinforce concepts, but fast becomes vapid. My confidence in Friedman's bias was shaken towards the last chapters of the book. He goes on a tirade regarding freshmen Republican Congressman who he accuses of being ignorant for their "pride in not having passports." He makes it clear that he identifies with Bill Clinton's views on "integrationist, social-safety-netters" and pokes fun at the more conservative view that he calls "let-em-eat-cakers." Not everyone can travel around the world at the expense of a liberal newspaper, but Friedman may have forgotten this. Otherwise, a stellar and informative read. A must for anyone who claims to be literate in world affairs!
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Summary: An excellent analysis of globalization
Review: Rating comment:
This is an excellent analysis of globalization. It reviews in depth its economics, politics, and demographics. Abstract:
Globalization is the Post Cold War order. It represents the worldwide spread of free-market capitalism. The more you let market forces rule and the more you open your economy to free trade and competition, the more efficient and flourishing your economy will be. It is the world order of the Information Age. There are now two worlds: the Fast World (industrialized) that is fully adapted to globalization and the Slow World that is not (Africa, Islamic Middle East, Central Asia). The Lexus represents innovation, technology, and global markets. The Olive Tree represents tradition and community identity. Globalization represents the impact that the Lexus has on the Olive Tree. The challenge is to insure that the Lexus and Olive Tree do not disrupt each other. Innovation should not hurt tradition, and tradition should not hinder innovation.
Globalization is built around three balances: 1) between nations; 2) between nations and capital markets; and 3) between nations and "super-empowered individuals" (SEIs). Osama bin Laden, and Bill Gates are SEIs. They can leverage much resources or capital to further (for good or bad) their respective objectives. Globalization with its access to information has given SEIs more power than ever. The main global player is the "Electronic Herd." It represents all the institutional traders, and hedge funds who allocate capital worldwide at the click of a mouse. The Electronic Herd searches for optimal return on capital given specific risk levels. The Electronic Herd is the live nervous system of the world's capital markets (New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong). The capital markets of stocks, bonds, and currencies is the ruler of the world economy. Joining the global economy is "taking a country public." And, governments become accountable to the Electronic Herd members who are its shareholders and bondholders. The Rules of Success to join the global system. 1) Countries must embrace transparency and international standards in markets and accounting, limit corruption, promote freedom of the press. 2) They must get "Fast" by empowering entrepreneurs, and readily adopting new technologies, and developing new markets for products and services. Japan has problems here because of a flawed political system. 3) Countries must get "light" emphasizing new information technologically driven industries instead of old smokestack industries. The new industries use miniaturization and digitization to produce value with much less physical weight than older industries. 4) A country must open itself up to trade, competition, markets. Openness attracts investment and technology from the Electronic Herd. Again, Japan is struggling here. 5) Countries must choose leaders who understand and promote globalization. Many leaders instead support protectionist policies that are self defeating. 6) Countries must position themselves just like consumer product brand. Government officials have to nurture their brand value. This is done by maintaining a sound track record in social, fiscal, and monetary policies, and in economic performance. Depending on how well a government follows these rules, its economy will either thrive or not. The following countries did not follow these rules well enough during the nineties, and all experienced economic crisis: Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Brazil. The Electronic Herd laid bare their flawed governments. Russia attempted to plug into the international capital markets without the necessary infrastructure to succeed. Russia had no legitimate oversight, no rule of law to enforce contracts and protects investors. This lead to the Russian recession and bond default in the late nineties.
The politics of globalization do not follow a conventional Republican vs. Democrat division. Instead, they run along two axis. The first one represents the acceptance of globalization. On the far right of this axis, you have the "Integrationists" who welcome globalization and promote it through market competition, free trade, and technology. It is the Lexus camp. At the far left of this axis, you have the "Separatists" who believe globalization is bad. They fight it by supporting protectionist policies, and regulating technological change. They represent the "Olive Tree." The second axis runs vertically represents the acceptance of government support to go along with globalization. At the southern end, you have the "Social Democrats" who believe that globalization will be sustainable only if it is democratized in both economic and political sense. At the northern end, you have the "Libertarians" who believe that unregulated markets should rule. They want to shrink government, taxes, and safety nets, and let people reap the fruits of their own labor or pay the price of their ineptitude. Bill Clinton was an Integrationist/Social Democrat. While, Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, was an Integrationist/Libertarian. That's why Clinton and Gingrich were allies on free trade, but opponents on welfare spending. George W. Bush is a moderate Integrationist/Libertarian. He is quicker to promote trade than social spending. Thomas Friedman is a Integrationist/Social Democrat. He believes you have to implement a safety net to support the people not equipped for the information age to promote social stability. If you don't, an angry underclass will cause civil unrest. This is true in the international arena too. If we don't help Africa, the Islamic Middle East, and Central Asia catch up, their rising resentment will trigger a rise in terrorism.
Thomas Friedman is a proponent of globalization. Capital flows should be as free as possible. Capital flows reward good governance and punish bad one. However, he feels that the Electronic Herd should be reigned in by regulating the leverage traders can take on. His concern is the systemic risk resulting from the near failure of the hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in the late nineties. If it had not been recapitalized by investment banks coerced by Allan Greenspan, LTCM failure could have disrupted the global capital markets.
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Summary: Today kids, let's talk about globalization.
Review: This book is typical Friedman...easy to read, informative, and somewhat redundant. I think his columns in the NYT are must-reads, but his books are so thorough and understandable, they become slightly predictable after 250 pages. He piles so many enlightening little conversations into one book. Okay! So Moustafa in Cairo benefits from the Thai baht! We are all interconnected! Unless I'm a Euro-artiste, I understand and welcome this phenomenon: globalization. Mr. Friedman is an excellent writer, and perhaps he's essential to the great unwashed who mix their politics with their Ben Affleck. His works can be ingested during an afternoon at the beach (or, in my case, the prairie) and pooped out in a Saturday night conversation. A good read for anyone interested in the human race.
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Summary: Neither Friedman¿s best, nor the best on globalization
Review: Thomas Friedman has written a valuable book that synthesizes economics, politics, culture, and technology into explaining globalization; and Mr. Friedman has written it in an accessible style that simplifies concepts without sacrificing insight. Despite the accessibility and comprehensiveness, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" is short on three fronts: the first is the lack of historical depth: Mr. Friedman regards globalization as a product of the post-Cold War era. Thus, he ignores many of the lessons of the pre-1914 globalization. To argue (as he does) that this era of globalization is different does not render all analogies to the past useless. Second, Mr. Friedman is caught in many clichés about globalization: with few exceptions, Mr. Friedman rarely says, "but this widespread perception is wrong." Next to his anecdotal compilation, he could have used some academic sources to dispel some of the myths about globalization. He does that sporadically but not enough. Lastly, Mr. Friedman presents the weaker case for globalization: its inevitability; there is a stronger (liberal) case to make in favor of globalization. For the most part, Mr. Friedman shies away from that, and retains his "there is no alternative" lens. That's a great injustice to globalization. Still, I don't think one can make a reading list on globalization that excludes "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." But if I had to read one book on globalization, this wouldn't be it.
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Summary: Although annoying, still useful
Review: If you are just starting to learn about Globalization, this may be the right book for you. The first 30-40 pages are actually quite interesting for a more advanced reader as well. The book intrigued me and I decided to read it.
What I liked about it:
1. Friedman has enough experience to provide interesting insights into the topic. He is a knowledgeable and smart guy.
2. The book is written in a very simplistic way, thus making it accessible to the general public. You don't have to be an economics professor to understand and form an opinion about it.
3. Friedman doesn't give us an account of the world events, assuming that we are keeping up with the current events and are quite initiated in everything that is going on in the world. Conversely, he explains the basic facts before analyzing something and giving his opinion.
What I didn't like about the book:
1. There is too much "I" thrown around. The president "told me", "I interviewed"... it gets too tiring after a while.
2. There is a "reinvented" name for everything, and some of those names are quite "interesting, if not annoying".
3. There is too mush repetition as some reviewers have already mentioned. Thank you very much, but I can get an idea from the first time, you don't have to repeat it 5 times. Overall, I think it is a book worth reading as it developed your general knowledge ad helps you form an opinion about globalization. I would recommend it, I not for enlightment, then for your own enrichment.
Rating:
Summary: All Around the World
Review: After reading a rash of left leaning books recently that pretty much blame all of the worlds problems on free trade and globalization it was nice to read this book. This book has gotten the reputation of the "everything you need to know about globalization" book so I thought it would be nice to balance my reading. I have also read some of the authors other work and knew he was a talented author. Well let me say that it was a real pleasure to read this book. The author did not disappoint in any way what so ever. He has a firm grasp on the subject and a wonderful talent for describing complicated ideas in a Joe Average way. He hit all the high points in the free trade and globalization book of tricks and made it understandable. The author also spent a lot of time creating titles for groups of people, companies or markets that lead the world into the new age of globalization. Given the fear some people and groups have about the one world order and other such nonsense, I was surprised that the author did not spend more time taking this group on. I also found the name dropping the author did a little annoying, ok it was nice at first but toward the end of the book I thought he was trying to prove something. Overall the book is a wonderfully written book that you will learn a great deal from.
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