Economist-Niall Ferguson

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson was born on April 18 1964, in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a British historian who specializes in financial and economic history as well as the history of colonialism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and the William Ziegler Professor of Business Adminsitration at Harvard Business School. He was educated at the private Glasgow Academy in Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is praised for his revisionist views rehabilitationg imperialism and colonialism. In 2008, he published his most recent book, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. At Harvard he teaches a popular undergraduate class entitled "Western Ascendancy: The Mainsprings of Global Power from 1600 to the Present.

In 2007, Ferguson was appointed as an Investment Management Consultant by GLG Partners, focusing on geopolitical risk as well as current structural issues in economic behaviour relating to investment decisions.

He also has prospered as a commentator in his established career. In October 2007, Niall Ferguson left the Sunday Telegraph and joined the Finacial Times, where he currently is a contributing editor. Ferguson believes the European Union is a disaster waiting to happen, and has criticized President Vladimir Putin of Russia for authoritarianism. In Ferguson's belief, Putin's policies stand to lead Russia to catastrophes equivalent to those that affected Germany during te Nazi era.

After attending the Glasgow Academy, he recieved a Demyship at Magdalen College, graduating with a first class honours degree in History in 1985. He is married to journalist Susan Douglas, whom he met in 1987 when she was his editor at the Daily Mail, they have three children together. In February 2010 the Daily Mail reported that Ferguson had left his wift for former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

His most well known books include; The Ascent of Money, The Cash Nexus, Colossus and Empire, and War of the World.