Lexus and the Olive Tree

A powerful account of the state of the world today – where fast food and fanaticism, shopping and civil war go hand in hand.

Half of this new, post-cold-war world is intent on building a better Lexus, on streamlining their societies and economies for the global marketplace, while the other half is locked in elemental struggles over who owns which olive tree, which strip of land.

FACT: no two countries with a McDonald’s have been at war.

FACT: Welsh football club Llansantffraid changed its name to ‘Total Network Solutions’ in exchange for $400,000

FACT: betting on the yen lost George Soros $600 million in a day and altered the course of international diplomacy

No power is strong enough to resist the global markets – the key question, addressed in this book, is how best to accomodate them, how to retain national identity and control over our lives while still linking up to the soulless, faceless global institutions in order to survive economically. There is no bigger or more urgent question facing the world

From the devastation of the Mexican economy to the biscuit that helped alter the course of an election, including jungle fighters, Russian gangsters, Japanese burger chain owners and Middle Eastern spies, to name but a few, Friedman brings the human side of his analysis vividly to life.