Friedman acknowledges complexities and subtleties – indeed, his title (The Lexus and the Olive Tree) emphasises the need to balance technology with tradition. And he does not confuse inevitability with desirability, as the triumphalists do. But two aspects – the inevitability of the process and whether the end-point is the pure free-market model – require further comment.
It is actually a tribute to the vision of the man, as he has intensively focussed on two economies that have, since, seen a lot of economic prosperity and have become the cynosure of all in the global market place.