Books by Thomas Friedman

Friedman talks about Globalization 3.0 which has been brought about by a confluence of various factors - technological, economic and political. He talks about the benefits, the challenges and the dangers in this new world. This is a must-read for all employers and workers, because whether they want it or not, their world is going to change significantly with the shrinking of the world.

Read a Matt Taibbi takedown of Friedman's terrible use of metaphors.

Tags: economics

Thomas Friedman presents various aspects of globalization in "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" - the new rules of the game, the benefits and disadvantages, the backlash and the role of the United States in promoting and furthering globalization. Friedman brings his immense experience talking to leaders, politicians, economists and ordinary people in several countries to this effort. It is an argument for more globalization and, at the same time, suggests social and economic measures to mitigate some of the problems caused by it. Events of the last 5 years have led to some portions of the book being anachronistic. Some of Friedman's rants (using other people as mouthpieces) are interesting and sometimes funny, but others feel unrealistic. Generally speaking, a good book with less of the coherent writing that defined "The World is Flat" by the same author.

Tags: economics

It is somewhat tough to read Friedman's book after reading Matt Taibbi's takedown. Despite that, I think this is a good book on its merits because it discusses many aspects of climate change and explains many different initiatives that can be taken to protect our planet. It is worth a read.

However, Friedman makes a mistake when he tries to conflate too many different ideas into a grand theory. Friedman's thesis is that higher oil revenues prop up dictators and therefore environmentalism is good for democracy. But elsewhere he states that oil demand will only go up in the short run even if energy conserving mechanisms are put into place. So it is not possible to reduce oil revenues. So why confuse the issue by introducing democracy promotion into an environmental discussion.

The problem is that environmentalism is not Friedman's primary strengths. He has primarily been an analyst for political and economic themes and his foray into issues of climate change and energy is that of an amateur trying to learn the ropes. And hence, the paradox of the book. It is a good introduction to the topic because the author is still in a learning mode. At the same time, it has fluid concepts and lacks the purity, understanding and detail of a Jeffrey Sachs book.

Tags: economics sociology politics

This contains a series of New York Times articles written by Tom Friedman on the Middle East and the Arab/Muslim World before and after 9/11. It ends with a commentary on the problems that contribute to the negative attitudes towards the United States. It contains discussions with leaders and ordinary people through the Muslim world. The author believes that only internal political reform within these countries would help combat the menace of terrorism. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most visible contributors to ill-will against the United States, poor economic progress and lack of democratic governments play a much deeper role. While it is a good book, the use of the NYT articles has made the book repetitive at many places. Instead, the author could have written a more coherent and concise book assimilating the content in those articles.

Tags: economics politics