Henry Kissinger Watches Historian Niall Ferguson Marry Ayaan Hirsi Ali Under a Fatwa

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Niall Ferguson, the television historian, has married Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the target of Muslim extremists, in an American ceremony attended by Henry Kissinger.

Never usually one to do anything without great fanfare, Niall Ferguson, the bombastic television historian, has quietly married Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP, who lives under a fatwa after writing the screenplay for Submission, a film critical of Islam. » | Richard Eden | Sunday, September 18, 2011

Niall Ferguson: 'The Real Point of Me Isn’t that I’m Good Looking. It’s that I’m Clever’
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Historian Niall Ferguson on why broken Britain, celebrity culture and being called a pin-up make him angry.

I have not yet asked Niall Ferguson about him leaving his wife and three children, or his relationship with the Somalian feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, so when he launches in to a lengthy and verbose attack against the press during what I thought was a pretty innocuous chat about political correctness (he loathes it, naturally), it seems a little out of the blue.

“I really hate it,” he scowls.

"I can’t stand it. I find the prurience, the prying, the sneering… I find it utterly odious. But the problem isn’t just the amorality of editors and their minions, it is that the British public also has a nauseating prurience. And what I find disgusting is that people want to judge footballers – and professors for that matter – by an entirely anachronistic yardstick. It’s as if by reading this stuff we become Victorians, and we are scandalised, I mean scandalised, to discover that a professor of history is getting divorced, which is clearly outrageous in this day and age.

“I mean, how can this be news? How can this be ------- news? To me, it’s just a collective hypocrisy that attracts people to these stories. This desire to look into the BEDROOMS” – he is practically shouting now – “and pick up the sheets and have a gander. It disgusts me.”

I understand Ferguson’s anger. His new girlfriend, who was circumcised as a young girl in Somalia and is now pregnant with their first child, lived under a fatwa even before Theo Van Gogh – her friend and collaborator on a film about Muslim women – was murdered by extremists, a message affixed to his chest with a knife saying that she was next.

Both Ferguson and Ali are on an al-Qaeda list now and have security. “It’s not just that I can’t understand why the British press should want to write stories about the private life of an academic who has done a bit of telly [his series for Channel 4, Civilization, based on his book of the same name, about the fall of the West, proved incredibly popular]. More than anything else what makes me tremendously angry is that one consequence of the intrusion was to place Ayaan in danger. That is just contemptible.” Continue reading and comment » | Bryony Gordon | Monday, September 05, 2011

MAIL ON SUNDAY: TV historian is having a child with his Somali-born feminist partner » | Mail On Sunday Reporter | Sunday, June 05, 2011

Niall Ferguson – Civilization: Is the West History?
Watch episode one here

Niall Ferguson: China Will Overtake the US within a Decade
Niall Ferguson, historian and author of Civilization, tells Robert Miller that the credit crisis means China's economy will overtake the US much quicker than expected
Watch Telegraph video here | Monday, March 07, 2011

Niall Ferguson: Yes, The US Is Screwed
This is an interview conducted by Business Insider Editor in Chief Henry Blodget In Davos

Niall Ferguson Explains Why Egypt Is More Like Iran Than Berlin
BUSINESS INSIDER: This revolution in Egypt is more likely to result in something like Iran, than it is to be like the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, according to Niall Ferguson.

Speaking to the German daily Handesblatt, Ferguson says that because the forces for democracy in Egypt are not well organized, Islamic fundamentalism will have a chance at success.

Ferguson also says there is a real threat that what happens in Egypt will spread to other countries, including Saudi Arabia.

The most important lesson from this crisis though, according to Ferguson, is that state capitalism, like that conducted by Egypt and China, is not perfect. [Source: Business Insider] | Gregory White | Monday, January 31, 2011

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NIALL FERGUSON: Yes, The US Is Screwed >>> Henry Blodget and Mamta Badkar | Friday, January 28, 2011

Niall Ferguson: Warburg on Banks, Bonuses and Morality
Watch Telegraph video here

Niall Ferguson: Warburg's Middle East Peace Doubts
Watch Telegraph video here

Harvard Prof. Niall Ferguson on Decline of America and Rise of a New Global Economic Order
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«Der Euro liegt im Sterben»
NZZ am SONNTAG: Die Währungsunion und der Euro leiden an einem Geburtsfehler, sagt der Historiker Niall Ferguson. Die Währungsintegration sei zum Scheitern verurteilt, da einzelne Mitglieder ausscheren und wieder eigene Währungen einführen werden. Interview: Chanchal Biswas und Charlotte Jacquemart

NZZ am Sonntag: Der Euro-Raum und der Euro werden seit Wochen heftig durchgeschüttelt, weil der griechische Staat ein Schuldenproblem hat. Was läuft falsch mit der Einheitswährung?

Ferguson: Der Euro krankt an denselben Mängeln wie vor zehn Jahren. Ich habe 1999 darauf hingewiesen, dass der Euro eine instabile Konstruktion ist. Mit dem Euro-Raum wurden zwar eine Währungsunion und eine gemeinsame Währung geschaffen, aber die Mitgliedstaaten haben an ihrer eigenen Finanzpolitik festgehalten. Das bedeutet, dass niemand dafür sorgt, dass das Verhältnis zwischen Ausgaben und Einnahmen in den einzelnen Ländern in etwa übereinstimmt.

Warum wäre das wichtig?

Eine gemeinsame Währung funktioniert nur, wenn sich keines der Mitgliedländer übermässig verschuldet. Das ist aber im Euro-Raum schwierig, nur schon weil die Mitgliedstaaten Bevölkerungen haben, die unterschiedlich schnell altern, und weil sie ihren Bewohnern unterschiedlich grosse Altersrenten versprochen haben. Diese Ungleichheiten gab es immer, aber erst die weltweite Finanzkrise hat sie zutage gebracht. Jetzt ist allen bewusst, auf welch schmalem Grat sich die Staaten Portugal, Italien, Spanien und Griechenland finanzpolitisch bewegen. Und wie gross ihr Abstand zu Deutschland oder den Niederlanden ist.

Warum spielen in der Währungsunion demografische Unterschiede eine Rolle?

Staaten mit grosszügiger sozialer Wohlfahrt, die Renten garantieren und diese früh zahlen, müssen dies mit Steuereinnahmen finanzieren. Steigen diese Ausgaben schnell, weil die Bevölkerung schnell altert, wird der Sozialstaat aus den Angeln gehoben. Das ist in den südlichen Ländern des Euro-Raums der Fall, deshalb werden ihre Defizite grösser. >>> Interview: Chanchal Biswas und Charlotte Jacquemart | Sonntag, 21. März 2010

Niall Ferguson: TV Historian Calls for GCSE History 'To Be Made Compulsory'
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: History should be a compulsory subject for British students sitting their GCSEs, the historian and broadcaster Niall Ferguson has said.

British schools are failing to properly teach children about major events due to a “junk history” curriculum, which has left standards at an all-time low, he said.

Prof Ferguson, 45, who has also presented a Channel 4 series of the world’s financial history, attacked the subject’s decline, arguing it was badly taught and undervalued. >>> Andrew Hough | Sunday, March 21, 2010

Klatsch! The History Man and the Fatwa Girl
MAIL ONLINE: The internationally celebrated historian and TV presenter Niall Ferguson has broken up with his wife of 16 years after a string of adulterous affairs.

The 45-year-old Harvard professor has left former newspaper editor Susan Douglas, with whom he has three children, for his mistress, the Somalian-born feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ms Hirsi Ali, 40, is a lawyer and former Dutch MP who wrote the script for a controversial film that criticised Islam and resulted in the assassination of its director. She is currently living under police protection in America.

Professor Ferguson, whose books, television programmes and work with financial hedge funds earn an estimated £5million a year, is understood to have been in a relationship with Ms Hirsi Ali since last summer.

Today, The Mail on Sunday can reveal how Ferguson’s philandering behaviour – described by one confidante as ‘more akin to a Premiership footballer’s louche ways than an esteemed professor’s’ – wrecked his marriage to Ms Douglas, one of Tory leader David Cameron’s closest friends, a leading member of the Tory ‘A-list’ of potential parliamentary candidates and a former Fleet Street editor.

Ferguson, who also has high-level links to the Tory Party, with a seat on the board of the Right-wing think-tank the Centre for Policy Studies, has been seen with Ms Hirsi Ali at a number of high-profile events over recent months.

Just two weeks ago they attended the Jaipur Literary Festival in India where they were photographed kissing in the opulent surroundings of the spectacular Diggi Palace.

Ms Hirsi Ali had been flown to the event secretly. She has been the subject of threats from Muslim extremists since writing the script for the movie Submission, which was critical of Islam. The history man and fatwa girl: How will David Cameron take news that think-tank guru Niall Ferguson has deserted wife Sue Douglas for Somali feminist? >>> Katie Nicholl, Miles Goslett and Caroline Graham | Sunday, February 07, 2010

'It's Tricky to Find Men When You're Living Under a Fatwa'

THE INDEPENDENT: Right-wing circles are transfixed by the relationship between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the neoconservative historian Niall Ferguson

The Time Magazine gala held in New York's Lincoln Centre last May was always going to be a high-octane affair. Billed as a celebration of The 100 Most Influential People in the World, it was a chance for the globe's intellectual and political glitterati to rub shoulders while making small talk about geo-politics and contemporary literature.

But amid the mingling of eminent grey matter – guests included Barack Obama's speechwriter and Oprah Winfrey – there was also a crackling of mutual physical attraction between two glamorous invitees with a shared taste for conservative politics and speaking their minds.

Yesterday, the affair sparked that night between the British historian and television presenter Niall Ferguson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born feminist whose criticism of Islam provoked a fatwa which has left her living under police protection since 2004, was revealed – along with the news that the millionaire academic is to divorce his wife of 16 years.

Friends of the 45-year-old Harvard professor, whose books, media activities and work in high finance have made him one of the world's most bankable intellectuals with an estimated income of £5m a year, confirmed that he has left the former Fleet Street editor Susan Douglas and their three children for Ms Hirsi Ali.

A close friend of the former editor of the Sunday Express said that the split was due to Professor Ferguson "conducting a private life in a manner more akin to that of a Premiership footballer than a professor". >>> Cahal Milmo and Luke Blackall | Monday, February 08, 2010

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Submission

The Trillion Dollar Question: China or America?
THE TELEGRAPH: Who is going to come out of the economic crisis stronger and with the whip hand - China or America, asks Niall Ferguson.

A delegation led by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, second from right, meets a Chinese led by vice-premier Wang Qishan in Beijing. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Two years ago, economist Moritz Schularick and I coined the word "Chimerica" to describe what we saw as the key relationship in the then-booming global economy: China plus America. Cheap Chinese labour was making US corporations highly profitable. Spendthrift American consumers, in turn, were keeping Chinese corporations busy with export orders. And the Chinese monetary authorities were converting export surpluses into dollar denominated reserves with the aim of preventing their own currency from appreciating. The unintended consequence was a multi-billion dollar credit line to the United States, financing America's deficit at rock-bottom rates.

It was those low long-term rates – combined with monetary policy errors by the Fed, excessive bank leverage and reckless financial engineering – that inflated the American property bubble, the bursting of which triggered this crisis.

To simplify the story, think of an unhappy marriage in which one partner does all the saving, while the other does all the spending. (We all know at least one couple like that.) But then the partner with the retail therapy habit maxes out on his/her credit cards. At the same time, the parsimonious partner finds her/his job under threat. What previously was a stable relationship is suddenly on the rocks.

In February, the People's Daily acknowledged the "global importance and influence" of Chimerica, but warned of an impending "period of chillness". Could this be one of those great turning points in history, when the balance of power tilts decisively away from an established power and towards a rising challenger? It is possible. Financial crises often accelerate the gradual shifting of the geopolitical tectonic plates; they are to history what earthquakes are to geology. >>> By Niall Ferguson | Monday, June 01, 2009

Niall Ferguson's 'The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World' is published in paperback by Penguin this week

”There Will Be Blood”
GLOBE AND MAIL: Harvard financial guru Niall Ferguson predicts prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession' ends

Harvard author and financial crisis guru Niall Ferguson has landed with a thud in Ottawa, spreading messages that could make even the most confident policy makers squirm.

The global crisis is far from over, has only just begun, and Canada is no exception, Mr. Ferguson said in an interview before delivering a presentation to public-policy think tank, Canada 2020.

Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence, he said. And the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict, albeit not on the scale of a world war, but violent all the same.
“There will be blood.”

The Buy America penchant pushed by the U.S. Congress in passing the recent stimulus bill was only the tip of the iceberg.

Abu Dhabi buying Nova Chemicals at bargain-basement prices on Monday is a sign of things to come, with financial power quickly being transferred over to the world's creditors – namely sovereign wealth funds – and away from the world's debtors.

And much of today's mess is the fault of central bankers who targeted consumer-price inflation but purposefully turned a blind eye to asset inflation.

The Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University, and author of The Ascent of Money, A Financial History of the World, sat down with The Globe and Mail's economics reporter, Heather Scoffield. >>> Heather Scoffield | Monday, February 23, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Canada) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Canada) >>>

Niall Ferguson: Without American Hegemony, the World Would Likely Return to the Dark Ages
The following article appeared in The Wall Street Journal in June 2004; but it is so relevant to the deteriorating situation in the world in the face of Islamic extremism, a seriously deteriorating world economy, powerless and clueless world leaders, and a weakened America that I feel it is well worth revisiting what Niall Ferguson had to say. Don’t forget that I have been warning of another “Dark Age” in my book, The Dawning of a New Dark Age, since 2003. - ©Mark

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: We tend to assume that power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the history of world politics, it seems, someone is always bidding for hegemony. Today it is the United States; a century ago it was Britain. Before that, it was the French, the Spaniards and so on. The 19th-century German historian Leopold von Ranke, doyen of the study of statecraft, portrayed modern European history as an incessant struggle for mastery, in which a balance of power was possible only through recurrent conflict.

Power, in other words, is not a natural monopoly; the struggle for mastery is both perennial and universal. The "unipolarity" identified by commentators following the Soviet collapse cannot last much longer, for the simple reason that history hates a hyperpower. Sooner or later, challengers will arise, and back we must go to a multipolar, multipower world.

But what if this view is wrong? What if the world is heading for a period when there is no hegemon? What if, instead of a balance of power, there is an absence of power? Such a situation is not unknown in history. Though the chroniclers of the past have long been preoccupied with the achievements of great powers--whether civilizations, empires or nation states--they have not wholly overlooked eras when power has receded. Unfortunately, the world's experience with power vacuums is hardly encouraging. Anyone who dislikes U.S. hegemony should bear in mind that, instead of a multipolar world of competing great powers, a world with no hegemon at all may be the real alternative to it. This could turn out to mean a new Dark Age of waning empires and religious fanaticism; of endemic rapine in the world's no-go zones; of economic stagnation and a retreat by civilization into a few fortified enclaves. Without American Hegemony, the World Would Likely Return to the Dark Ages >>> By Niall Ferguson

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>