Video Friday: Niall Ferguson & “Wall Street” the Sequel

Niall Ferguson: Empires on the Edge of Chaos – via Fora.Tv- Throughout history the rise and fall of empires isn’t slow or cyclical, as we like to think, but arrhythmic…it mostly happens very, very suddenly. America is a superpower on the edge of chaos, according to economic historian and author Niall Ferguson. U.S. debt levels, he says, and its unwillingness to address the problem, has put it in the same category as other great empires which have collapsed throughout the ages. Ferguson argues the world is changing. There’s the rise of authoritarian China as a super-power; a Keynesian president leading a weakened United States; the re-emergence of democratic India as a great power; the continued decline of Japan; and the probability of continued global economic instability ahead. (Thanks to SimoleonSense.com, 9/19/2010)

Also catch, “Wall Street” the Sequel: What’s Changed? (Portfolioist, 9/23/10) Hear from corporate governance and movie expert Nell Minow, New York Times blogger and financial advisor Carl Richards, and socially-responsible investor Paul Herman on the movie’s impact and lessons.