Niall Ferguson’s argument style is tendentious and question-begging, painfully oversimplified and predictable in the extreme, which he tries to paper over with rhetorical flourish. It seems like every other sentence he says something jaw-droppingly wrongheaded. Nothing of his I’ve ever read has contained even a shred of insight, and he’s infuriating and frankly exhausting to read. His “success” owes to his ability to effectively flatter a particular group of rich men, but I don’t know anyone of substance who takes him seriously.

Just ignore him and move on.