Making Fun Of Niall Ferguson

Since Niall Ferguson mentioned gold, although demurring from recommending it because it's gone up a lot, Adrian Ash took the opportunity to make fun of him. It turns out that Ferguson predicted the twilight of gold in 1999, except as jewelry, and he shied away from gold in late 2008. Ash concludes:

Now he says early summer 2010 is not the time to Buy Gold either. So, given what happened when he rejected the idea in mid-1999 and then in late 2008, expect another $400-or-so on the price before the Laurence A.Tisch Professor of History next weighs in with his forecast.

And meantime, the man whose last TV-and-book blockbuster, The Ascent of Money, concluded that "the state-owned bank [was] now close to extinction"...just as the UK nationalized one-third of its finance sector, and the US Fed bought $2 trillion of failing bank assets...now advises that "There are other ways to protect yourself, and maybe somewhat smarter ways."

Missing the point entirely again, Ferguson recommends – instead of gold – buying Norwegian and Swiss government debt as protection against...ummm...the sovereign debt crisis.

Of course, in Ferguson's defense, he isn't an investment analyst.