The Continuing Intellectual Assault That Is Tom Friedman

When one ever wants to look for the EPIC FAIL of metaphors, one never needs to look beyond the person named in the title of this blog post. Far be it from me to criticize the ideas presented in the column, it is as a user of English and a past student of Physics that I bemoan every tortured metaphor that I find.

case in point:

In a flat world, money can easily seek out the highest returns, and when word got around about Iceland, deposits poured in from Britain — some $1.8 billion. Unfortunately, though, when global credit markets closed up, and the krona fell, “the Icelandic banks were unable to finance their debts, many of which were denominated in foreign currencies,” The Times reported. When depositors rushed to get their money out, the Icelandic banking system had too little reserves to cover withdrawals, so all three banks melted down and were nationalized.

(link)

Does anyone else have a problem with the money being able to seek out the HIGHEST returns in a FLAT world? or the FALLING of the Krona? Am I on crazy pills?

a further assault on reason and logic:

It will be a world in which America will not be able to scratch its ear, let alone roll over in bed, without thinking about the impact on other countries and economies. And it will be a world in which multilateral diplomacy and regulation will no longer be a choice. It will be a reality and a necessity. We are all partners now.

this is an example of what has been called globollocks. the USA has a military that outspends all the rest of the world’s combined and they’ll be damned if they dont use it when they need to.