May: Books I've Read

I have been a pretty bad reader these past few weeks, which I can admit, despite making it my goal month after month. What I did get to this month was:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman.
Extremely interesting read as a snapshot in time; it was published in 2000 – before 9/11, long before all of our current troubles, endless wars in the Middle East, et cetera. The focus of the book is globalization as the new (post-Cold War) era. Even the constant reference to the Cold War as an anchoring point has a confused disarming quality. This was a long book with lots of stories and I can admit to a bit of skimming. The foundational analogy: the lexus = economic development and the olive tree = lingering nationalism and heritage. All of Friedman’s stories point to the inevitability and the new permanence of these two competing forces. As such, it gets a bit repetitive, but two novel (to me) things that I took from this slightly dated book were:

The Golden Arches theory of Conflict Prevention – This being the idea that no two countries who have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war after getting the McDonalds, i.e. democracies and/or countries with potential for greater economic development do not like to fight wars; they prefer to stand in line for burgers. My google search, “Is the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention still true?” produced a Wikipedia article citing exceptions with Georgia and Russia (invasion earlier last year) and ongoing skirmishes between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region. Regardless, I think the overall concept reinforced my understanding that to some extent it’s not about political posturing or aid – it’s about economic development, and hope for people to generate posterity after poverty. It isn’t even all about policy, although I think that’s probably an inextricable part of the economic development piece.

The other key truth that I retained after reading is the idea that economic development isn’t enough – it just isn’t enough to flourish in the new global world. I am paraphrasing my big takeaway quote from memory: “It isn’t enough to be right about the two economic imperatives of globalization and free trade.” These two realities and values do not preclude the aspects of government that is good, the stabilizing forces of society that protect us and give us a safety net from misery. Something to remember even as Obama’s administration is criticized for the typical big government arguments.

In addition to this one actual book, I have also been reading quite a few good articles (my favorite treadmill reading). I’ve been catching up on several back issues of Vanity Fair articles, for one… latest on Bernie Madoff, the new Tarantino movie, profiles of Heirs and Heiresses, quite an homage to Ted Kennedy. And, have also been reading articles from top consulting firms as posted on their websites. As I’ve been researching potential career options for business school, reading about a consulting firm’s expertise and ideas in a particular industry has been interesting fodder to help me think about how I might approach similar problems and like working on them in that context.

Next up is Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, Reagan’s America (Wills), and The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro). Can't wait til I'm out of work and can actually get more reading in :)