Niall Ferguson - Caution: Left turn ahead

[devil39]

Niall Ferguson, professor of history and economics and author of Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire (well worth reading in conjunction with Thomas P.M. Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map), with a suggestion that the world is taking a Left-wing shift that we might not be recognizing.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferguson8may08,0,6273454.column?page=1&coll=la-home-commentary

 

[Edward Campbell]

Well, he's one of the (few) smart guys.  It pays to consider what he says.

Ferguson's speciality is economic history (even though The Pity of War is outstanding, original military history).  His comments on inequality as a political driver may be an important leading indicator.

 

[pbi]

But I wonder how one factors that Canada and Germany, for example, have right of centre governments recently elected. What about India and Brazil-could those elected governments be called "left"?  And does the growing prosperity and economic strength of both those countries point to a leftward turn? What about China and Russia? Setting aside the Communist legacies of both, are their governments currently manifesting tendencies of the left, or of the right? (although, granted that if you're on the receiving end the differences can be rather acadenmic...)

Cheers