Niall Ferguson

With his wide-eyed scholarly enthusiasm, youthful good looks and penchant for world travel, is doing his best to become the Indiana Jones of economics. Certainly the Harvard professor, economist, historian and bestselling author has become something of a poster pundit for the continuing global economic crisis. The publication of "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World" seems a miracle of perfect timing and comes complete with a four-hour documentary that will air on PBS this year.

Re "Auld lang syne for English speakers," Opinion, Jan. 1 Niall Ferguson should take some comfort in the fact that the world is turning out more in the fashion of the English-speaking world than of any other. The English-speaking world has made and established the rules and methods within which the world operates. Those rules and methods are not likely to change because they have proved, through a process of elimination, that they work best for the modern world. The world's needs and aspirations cannot be met without democracy and capitalism.

Re "Blue-helmet time in Iraq," Opinion, Jan. 15 Niall Ferguson has cherry-picked history again. The British ultimately failed in Iraq in the 1920s because they used firepower instead of finesse. However, they succeeded admirably in Malaya during the post-World War II insurgency by acting as police instead of conquerors. Unfortunately, political leaders seldom know or understand military history. They certainly do not seem to realize that troops are only really effective when used against uniformed armies of an opposing country.

Re "Obama's antiwar audacity," Opinion, Feb. 19 Painfully missing in Niall Ferguson's column concerning Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's stated position on withdrawing from Iraq is the continued escalation of Iraqi deaths; depending on your source, that figure could be in the hundreds of thousands. Is this our reason for staying, to get an accurate body count? Also missing is how horribly our rebuilding efforts have fared under Washington's inept leadership.

Re "It's lonely at the top," Opinion, Feb. 26 Niall Ferguson's essay misses the point. America is hated in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America not because of its power but because of how it uses its power. America was not hated under the Clinton administration, even though back then, relative to Russia and China, America was more powerful than it is now. Nor was America hated in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. It is the misguided policies of the Bush administration that have resulted in virtually the entire world questioning America's moral authority.

Re "The good old days of colonialism," Current, March 11 Niall Ferguson ignores two basic factors underlying that situation. First, the individuals who emerged to lead post-colonial Ghana were ineluctably those who could most successfully tap into the resentment bred by generations of colonial repression. The fault lies with the colonizing power, in this case Britain, for not creating an environment in which responsible, capable leaders could emerge. Second, how much effort did Britain put into undoing the colonial dependency it had imposed on generations of Ghanaian (then Gold Coast)

Re "Where's Pinafore when we need it?" Opinion, April 16 I was shocked to read Niall Ferguson's assertion that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was responsible for our "near-fatal unreadiness" for World War II. In the face of an intransigent Congress, Roosevelt devised ways to give aid to Britain -- with sometimes questionable authority. He arranged to trade destroyers for British territory in the Caribbean. It is fair to say that, without Roosevelt's foresight and help, England could not have won the Battle of Britain.

Re "The stage is set for tragedy," Opinion, May 21 One of the terrible ironies of the Bush administration is that history and literature have taught us the lessons that Niall Ferguson writes about, and yet "King George" and his loyal yes-men have not learned from these examples. One would think they'd be wiser, but their hubris, the tragic flaw that leads to the downfall of so many great ones, has blinded them to these realities. They are more than "in blood, steeped so far," as Ferguson quotes from "Macbeth"; they are steeped in the same arrogance and overconfidence that led Macbeth to his unseemly end. Bush and his cronies seem destined for similar ignominy.

Re "Scotland, it's over, but keep the accents," Opinion, Jan. 2 I was initially angered by Niall Ferguson's column, then I learned he's an academic and I completely understood the reason for his frustrated tirade. The Scots are practical, down-to-earth people first and foremost. We have had our share of great people, but then so have most other cultured nations. We have great admiration for all others -- particularly Americans -- who succeed in improving the lot of humanity, regardless of the accomplishment.