In this corner...

In recent (and largely irrelevant news), two of the more prominent public intellectuals of our time have decided to have a spat over the snoozingly unspatworthy topic of long-term U.S. treasury rates. The issue at a glance: 10-year and 30-year T-bill rates have been hiking up over the course of the past few weeks, which may or may not signify something very good or very bad or nothing at all. The contestants: Paul Krugman and Niall Ferguson.

Here's a good Slate article that picks apart the differences of their respective positions. I liked the article. In fact I liked it so much that I can't think of anything substantial to add.

Unsubstantial? Here are my two cents: when a Nobel Prize winning economist decides to hammer it out on the topic of finance with a historian who subscribes to the right-leaning revisionist school of intellectual shit-stirring, bet on the guy with the Swedish medal.

And just for fun, I looked up this old Sadly No! article on Mr. Ferguson ("an Oxbridge neo-Thatcherite to take Wingnuttia by storm") because it's hilarious.