Comment

Colossus

the Price of America's Empire
Feb 13, 2013Lukeinvancouver rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Niall Ferguson is a great historian and wonderful story teller; there's no doubt about it. However, at times he mixes opinion with historical analysis. This is especially acute in the case of Iraq. His claim that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with the vast reserves of oil the country has "is supported" by two opinion pieces in US newspapers. His claim that the cost of the war would be about US $ 48 billion would be ludicrous if it wasn't so sad. Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes estimated 3 trillion! (Google it if you doubt me, or better yet, read their book.) I also wish Ferguson stayed clear of economics because his knowledge of the discipline is very limited. For example, he mentions again and again a crude theory of the quantity of money in circulation, which means - according to him - that an increase in the quantity of money will INEVITABLY lead to higher inflation. The Fed has vastly increased the supply of money since the crisis of 2008 and yet the USA is still hovering near deflation. Ferguson apparently hasn't heard of a liquidity trap, or so it seems.