Niall Ferguson, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson (born 18 April 1964)[1] is a British historian. His speciality is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.[2]

Ferguson, who was born in Glasgow, is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University[1]. He was educated at the private Glasgow Academy in Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Ferguson's books include Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and Civilization: The West and the Rest,[3] all of which he has also presented as Channel 4 television series.

In 2004 he was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. He is currently[when?] a contributing editor for Bloomberg Television and a columnist for Newsweek.
Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity, TED Global 2011, Filmed July 2011, Posted Sept 2011, http://www.ted.com/talks/niall_fergu...rosperity.html

Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture -- call them the 6 killer apps -- that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable.
"It’s our generation that is witnessing the end of Western predominance. The average American used to be more than 20 times richer than the average Chinese. Now it’s just five times, and soon it will be 2.5 times.”