Ezra Klein: Taibbi Stabs

April 21, 2005

Taibbi Stabs

Via a kind reader, Matt Taibbi's review of the Tom Friedman's new book is, without doubt, the funniest and sharpest-knifed book review I've ever read. Good times.

April 21, 2005 | Permalink

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Comments

Thanks, I haven't laughed so hard in ages.

Posted by: Mark | Apr 21, 2005 4:14:36 PM

That review is amusing. But it is even more worthless than Friedman's book. How many people are reading the book for its merits in using the English language? This criterion is way way down the list of those used by anyone who would be in the market for such a book.

Posted by: Allen K. | Apr 21, 2005 4:28:46 PM

Colombus didn't discover that the world was flat. That was established for quite some time beforehand.

Posted by: verplanck colvin | Apr 21, 2005 5:26:40 PM

I am, Ezra, forever in your debt.

Posted by: tinman | Apr 21, 2005 5:55:12 PM

"Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one."

fucking hysterical.

Posted by: praktike | Apr 21, 2005 6:07:33 PM

I agree with Allen.
The review is quite funny, but he doesn't offer any criticism of Friedman's ideas---and yes, Friedman has ideas, just loopy ones.
Compare Friedman with Brooks, who is a pretty good writer whose best phrases are memorable, but who is an evil Goebbels-like apologist for Bushology. I wouldn't want Taibbi praising Brooks's writing skills.
I actually vowed never to read Taibbi after reading a very stupid and extremely vicious article about Clark, full of numerous references to Clark's "beady, lifeless eyes".
Taibbi seems very surface-obsessed, and far to pleased with his own, unexceptional prose.
If this is the best he can offer, I'll skip his next offering.

Posted by: marky | Apr 22, 2005 12:35:36 AM

far to pleased with his own, unexceptional prose

Yeah, but what about his ideas?

Posted by: GD | Apr 22, 2005 1:41:57 AM

Mr. Taibbi's ego makes Mr. Friedman's look small. That's why he misses the central fact: Mr. Friedman is correct in his core premise.

I've been watching these trends for twenty years, ever since I wrote my thesis at UCLA on "Innovation and Comparative Advantage in International Trade". Note that snoozer of a title, boy it'd sell some books.

Mr. Friedman is simply trying to convey the same trends in terms most Americans will pay attention to. But even then only a few even bother.

The sad fact is those young narcissists I see all over the place, whose masses of tattoos scream a lack of long term foresight and judgement and who can't be bothered to get as much education as possible, won't know what hit them in twenty years. I can hear them now, but...we're Americans...whaaaa...you can't discriminate based on tattoos...whaaaa.

Think I'm hiring any of them in my latest start-up?

Posted by: Tom Coffin | Apr 22, 2005 11:55:00 AM

Friedman's idea are fresh out of the box manager-speak. Nonsense wrapped in buzzwords that, by the virtue of their buzzing, sound like something real. His malapropish language mangling is a signifier of this: he doesn't know what the fuck he's saying so he says an awful lot of it.

The first rule of writing: if you can't use the language correctly, it doesn't matter what you're trying to say. Your thesis will be undermined by the fact that you think heard animals hunt and Columbus named the Indians because he was looking for India. (He was actually looking for a route to Hindustan, since India as a country wouldn't exist for another three centuries).

Posted by: Keith | Apr 22, 2005 12:06:53 PM

Okay, Friedman is guilty of pop-culture comunication...that's his job. He's good at it, he watches events, travels the globe, talks to bright people, and tries to bring what these things mean back to us. Why the viciousness for him and Nick Kristoff on the web?

Taibbi does not understand that Friedman has linked Mr. Nilekani's leveling with 19th century economist David Ricardo's iron law of wages. That means that as the palying field is leveled by globalization living standards for many Americans will be flattened out unless we respond far more effectively.

Can anyone say that Taibbi's review, with its nitpicking pedantry, should give me any hope that we are prepared to do that?

Posted by: Tom Coffin | Apr 22, 2005 1:08:56 PM

I hope you hire Friedman for your startup, he'd waste all your venture on painfully obvious conventional wisdom dressed up in pretension. That would be a surefire hit with your customers.

Posted by: matt colgan | Apr 22, 2005 4:59:43 PM

David Ricardo? You've got to be kidding me, his thesis has been in the dustbin of history for over a century. He's taught as an example of how wrong you can be.

Posted by: matt colgan | Apr 22, 2005 5:01:56 PM

Okay, Ricardo's iron law of wages is dust. Then why are all of the wages in manufacturing, technology, and customer service flattening as competition from China and India bites. Not only here but in Mexico as well?

BTW I would hire Friedman in a heartbeat. He's got guts and is open minded. I like that. Why do so many in the "blogosphere" despise him?

Posted by: Tom Coffin | Apr 22, 2005 5:35:16 PM

'Cus he's a nitwit.

Posted by: Keith | Apr 22, 2005 10:36:57 PM

Okay, Friedman's a nitwit. Can you back that up with something true and meaningful? Or are you like Mr. Klein and hide behind another's hack job. As others have pointed out both here and at The Smirking Chimp, Taibbi doesn't touch the facts, he just smears.

Are you saying you'd hire Taibbi over Friedman if your money was on the line?

Posted by: Tom Coffin | Apr 22, 2005 11:27:35 PM

BTW I notice nobody here, especially Ezra Klein, touches the only issue that really matters. Is the American standard of living at risk as Friedman describes?

That's all that matters to my family. Not how Tommy F. writes or whether Ricardo is in vogue.

Posted by: Tom Coffin | Apr 22, 2005 11:39:57 PM

GD,
Taibbi doesn't HAVE any ideas, nor any real criticism of Friedman's thesis.
Yes, the review was entertaining, but it was a cheap shot.

Posted by: marky | Apr 23, 2005 12:55:25 AM

Tom Coffin,

See my previous comment for my take on Friedman.

Posted by: Keith | Apr 23, 2005 2:31:33 PM

The first stage of a £150m investment in regional museums is praised for boosting visitor numbers.

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