Sep 19, 2026 · 27 min · 14 segments
In 2011, renowned historian Niall Ferguson warned WEALTHTRACK viewers that America’s economic dominance was under attack. We revisit his warnings and why they are becoming a reality. Originally…
Niall FergusonGuestConsuelo MackHost
I mean, you'd have been much more impressed by Ming China or by the rising Ottoman Empire.
And if you'd gone to London, you'd have thought, ugh, sort of small, smelly, plague-ridden and constantly fighting with one another.
And the story of pretty much 500 years from the mid-15th century until our time was the story of Western ascendancy.
The great oriental empires languished, per capita GDP in China basically didn't grow throughout the entire Ming period, essentially flatlined, and then it actually declined in the Qing era.
Whereas Europe had a series of extraordinary revolutions that propelled it into a position of world dominance.
And then its most successful colony in North America, which became the United States, then became the biggest economy in the world.
Well, I wanted to try and explain this great divergence that means, just to give you an illustration, by the 1970s, the average American is roughly 30 times richer than the average Chinese.
real difference.
Mm-hmm.
And the answer is that there were these killer applications, these institutional innovations that only the West had.
I mean, you'd have been much more impressed by Ming China or by the rising Ottoman Empire.
And if you'd gone to London, you'd have thought, ugh, sort of small, smelly, plague-ridden and constantly fighting with one another.
And the story of pretty much 500 years from the mid-15th century until our time was the story of Western ascendancy.
The great oriental empires languished, per capita GDP in China basically didn't grow throughout the entire Ming period, essentially flatlined, and then it actually declined in the Qing era.
Whereas Europe had a series of extraordinary revolutions that propelled it into a position of world dominance.
And then its most successful colony in North America, which became the United States, then became the biggest economy in the world.
Well, I wanted to try and explain this great divergence that means, just to give you an illustration, by the 1970s, the average American is roughly 30 times richer than the average Chinese.
real difference.
Mm-hmm.
And the answer is that there were these killer applications, these institutional innovations that only the West had.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.