Nialls Ferguson--Food for Thought: Never let it be said that I am a wild eyed liberal stuck in my own ideological cement. That could not be farther from the truth. I am CONSTANTLY changing. As a matter of fact I change my ideological bent too much. My one (only one)frailty is that I cannot take a permanent stand on much of anything. I have drifted to the left and even the right (I forget when that was) and everywhere in between. Now I seem to have taken a home, at least for now, on the left side of the political spectrum.

HOWEVER, the link below is to a lecture given by a noted intellectual, historian and economist, Harvard professor and probably a million other intellectually impressive titles, Niall Ferguson. I first listened to him when I saw him on CSPAN in 2004 giving a lecture about his book entitled "Empire: The Rise and Demise of that British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power." His new book can be found on Amazon entitled: "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire." You may think by the title of his last book he is a Howard Zinn type socialist. He is I can assure you NO such thing.

I put this link below from FORA.tv of his lecture in Sydney at a CIS forum. CIS, the "Center for Independent Studies" bills itself as "the leading independent public policy 'think tank' within Australasia. The CIS is actively engaged in supporting a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents. With critical recommendations to public policy and by encouraging debate amongst leading academics, politicians, journalists and the general public, the CIS aims to make sure good ideas are heard and seriously considered."

So with that in mind even though on policy I probably disagree with his anti-Krugman opposition, he is, no one can doubt, a brilliant scholar. Will he change my mind? Who knows? It's always open!

http://fora.tv/2010/07/28/Niall_Ferguson_Empires_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos