I hosted a Book Forum today at the Cato Institute for Olaf Gersemann, author of Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality, with comments provided by Steven Pearlstein, business columnist for the Washington Post. It was well attended, which I hope will add to the buzz generated by the glowing endorsement of the book in a Wall Street Journal editorial the day before (9/28/04). Pearlstein, who just returned from a tour of businesses and factories in both eastern and western Europe, was also very enthusiastic about the book. (You can watch or listen to the event through Real Video or Real Audio.)
The book quickly jumped to number 336 on the Amazon.com sales rank last night (at the moment it’s at 931), so somebody’s buying it. It’s really a terrific work. I recommend buying a copy for yourself and a copy for at least one of your annoying friends who goes on and on about how everything is better in Europe. (As I pointed out at the forum, I spent the summer of 1995 doing research in Paris without air conditioning, and I am confident that not a single French person thought that the absence of air conditioning was a benefit of living in France. Nor did they last year, when so many elderly people died from lack of enough wealth to afford the air conditioning that would have protected them from the heat.)