2012-08-29

Ferguson v. Krugman: Unless Lions Are Involved...

Historian Niall Ferguson is taking some heat for his recent article in Newsweek where he lambastes President Obama and asks him to "hit the road."

It was surprising Newsweek, of all publications, would publish a piece that criticizes Obama so strongly. The Atlantic breaks it down here.

The main protagonist demanding a retraction and apology is none other than Paul Krugman.

Kroooogman is upset that Ferguson - who have a long-standing feud - not only played with facts about Obamacare but alleges Ferguson lied.

Dems fightin' words.

Whatever.

It's not like liberals never lie and make shit up. Never. Nah.

Anyway.

One is a historian and the other an economist. Neither are political science experts but pretend to be. Krugman in particular should cool it given he's seen as nothing more than a sometimes shrill Democratic shill. As such, he lacks the very "substance" he accuses Ferguson of not having.

There are plenty of academics, youtube videos, and websites out there that take on Paul. 

"Hey, big spender" Krugman, by the way, possesses an ego large enough to permit him to delete comments on his blog.

As for Ferguson, he's a conservative historian. I recently watched his documentary on how the West got rich. It was ok but I was perplexed by his omitting Italy's role. In fact, I was disappointed but par for the course with British historians when it comes to Italian history.

Italy - well, the entities operating within Italy since it wasn't unified -  was the wealthiest, most prosperous nation in Europe between Rome and 1600. They were bankers, traders and merchants often funding European projects from behind the scenes. Venetian businessmen were already dealing with Russians on the Volga by the 12th century and were exploring Asia establishing lucrative key trade routes that would help make Europe a super power centuries later. Florence led with its commercial interests during the Renaissance, while Naples was one of Europe's largest cities; to say nothing of Italy's superiority in cultural activities.

And this is just a glimpse. So, yeah, I don't get why Ferguson would basically gloss over this. Instead, he chose to place England - surprise - as the main engine of European success. Which it was, much later. By the time the Brits got in the game, the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and French all had a leg up on them and behind it all were the Italians.

Where I agree with British historians is how they interpreted the Risorgimento. But that's not the point of the post here.

Not sure how this fits into his Obama piece so I'm just gonna end it here.

Krugman can suck on a non-pitted olive.

End non-sequitur.

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