June 20, 2012

The Rain in Spain

Dear Friends:

As some of you know, I just returned from 2-3 weeks in Spain, where I went to promote the Spanish translation of Why America Failed--translated there as Las raices del fracaso americano (The roots of the american failure).  This included interviews with a number of newspapers, and also a video interview in Madrid with an outfit called periodista digital (the digital reporter). For some odd reason, they insisted that I do it in English, and that my publisher/editor/translator, Eduardo Rabasa, provide a running translation of what I was saying. So it comes off a bit uneven, but the interviewer did manage to ask questions that went to the heart of the matter. Hence, a decent job overall, if rather brief (which could be good, of course). For readers of this blog, or of WAF, this material may be a bit redundant, but I offer it up as another take on the whole issue of why the US is slowly sliding into the sea (along with Spain, which foolishly chose to follow the American socioeconomic model--a guaranteed recipe for disaster). Apparently, this interview is also running on YouTube; but the link I have for it is as follows:

http://www.periodistadigital.com/ocio-y-cultura/libros/2012/06/14/morris-berman-sexto-piso-raices-del-fracaso-americano-crepusculo-cultura.shtml