Comments on: Evil Parasitic Caterpillar that has Been Eating Thomas Friedman's Brain Finally Dies!

By: pozycjonowanie łódź

pozycjonowanie łódź — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:34:54 +0000

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By: Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts | Citizen Renaissance

Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts | Citizen Renaissance — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:44:34 +0000

[...] His book Hot, Flat and Crowded seems to suggest Friedman is finally ‘getting it, though he still denies peak-oil. This new book is a huge about-turn on his The Lexus and the Olive-Tree. Apparently at a news conference he even renounced the ‘science’ of economics and vowed to help develop a new steady state economy. [...]

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:22:39 +0000

NeoLotus – I thought everybody on this blog has read Small is Beautiful? That and Diet for a Small Planet were part of the zeitgeist of my childhood. Even if you hadn’t read them, your grown-ups had, and you breathed their atmosphere.

By: Jerah

Jerah — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:02:51 +0000

Oh, and apparently he wrote a new one for “Hot, Flat and Crowded”:
http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html

I’m crying, I’m laughing so hard.

The take-away quote, on Friedman changing his mind about unlimited growth and becoming an “environmentalist”:

“But better late than never, I suppose. Or as Friedman might say, “Better two cell phones than a fish in your zipper.” “

By: Jerah

Jerah — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:35:35 +0000

I cannot STAND Friedman. I once had to transcribe a whole speech of his – I almost choked on all the convoluted, meaningless, mangled metaphors. He managed to describe Israeli/Palestinian peace negotiations using the image of a coffee cup, a conference table, and a dog. It was awful.

He is such an idiot, I doubt he even noticed that he’s contradicting himself on the idea of growth…

Here’s the most hilarious lampooning of “friedmanese”, courtesy of Matt Taibbi: http://www.nypress.com/article-11419-flathead.html

By: NeoLotus

NeoLotus — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:10:36 +0000

Leila,

I might also suggest reading “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” by E.F. Schumacher. It was published in 1973.

And a HUGE thanks to Sharon for giving me a very hearty laugh for the day.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:02:25 +0000

Peter – I think if you start with HFAC, it is really hard to realize what a fast turnaround Friedman has done. If you read _The Lexus and the Olive Tree_ or _The World Is Flat_, you’ll see that this is a pretty radical shift – and that he was such a huge proponent of the idea that there only is one choice, massive industrial globalization. At one point in TLATOT, he says something along the lines (it is quoted in A Nation of Farmers, I think) that the only choices are globalization and that we become North Korea. I think he bears a lot of blame for publicizing the narrative that got us in trouble – but I’m grateful for his turnaround.

Crunch – Glad I helped with breakfast . I just have a thing about mustaches – they evoke the 1970s for me in much the same way brown bell bottoms and avocado green wallpaper do.

Jamey – Cool, thanks!

Sharon

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:35:34 +0000

This confirms my postulate about the NY Times: the paper will only print a new idea once it has become so glaringly obvious that it is now received wisdom. If it’s regarding a trend or a fashion or a technology, then the moment for it has already passed. (Facebook is over, folks, we just don’t know it yet). But if it’s about something as big as the Great Disruption -well, it just means that now only wingnuts will refuse to believe it.

2d point about economists – why hasn’t anybody in this crowd read The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie Kelly? The book is 7 years old or more; I got it b/c a friend worked for the publisher in SF for a time. She reorganizes traditional accounting to show how it leaves out the really important stuff, like environmental impact and the worth of labor. She also analyzes the “rights” of capital as similar to the divine rights of kings – our constitution doesn’t really posit that capital deserves all these rights, but we unconsciously accept that shareholders deserve more rights than the rest of the polity and the planet. My summary from reading several years ago. Every body go find this book and read it now.

By: vera

vera — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:21:21 +0000

Thanks for the link, Sharon. Interesting. I am wondering whether, however, it is less of a conversion than rats leaving the ship.

But even that is good news.

By: Soi Disant

Soi Disant — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:00:28 +0000

This is definitely a Friedmanian ’round turn!’ I’d say Hooray! except for the fact that the affliction your posting points to has inevitably caused cognitive-dissonance-related permanent amnesia, and so we will find Mr. Friedman writing and speaking now as though his new way of thinking was what he thought all along.

MY hope for the present financial crisis—from which a way will be manufactured for us to emerge “all better”—will be that more of the pundits and talking bigheads who have access and audience will start questioning the prevailing “endless growth” economic paradigm by beginning to cite some of the more cautionary and critical voices that have been there all along.

Another view finally has a brief chance—at least until the present crisis is “over”—to be heard and discussed.

At least, that is something we can hope for.