If you haven't yet caught the symbolism of Rome, Athens and Washington being in financial freefall then look East ... far East, where after 5 centuries of humbling stagnation China is innovative and creative in ways the West used to be. For an historian, it is the way-of-the-world. For the rest-of-us .. This is ominous. Does it have to be?

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Part Two of The Current

Niall Ferguson: The West and the Rest

Historian Niall Ferguson believes the nations of the West really broke away from the pack when they adopted what he calls six killer apps: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic. That's what made them rich and powerful and able to boss around everybody else.

But those ideas couldn't be copyrighted and other countries that adopt them can flourish as well. In his new book Civilization: The West and the Rest, he argues countries such as China and India challenge western societies with western ideas... Ideas in which the west seems to have lost faith. Niall Ferguson was in our Toronto studio.

Related Links:

• Niall Ferguson's 'Civilization': They're gaining on us By: Tyrone Beason - Seattle Times
• Niall Ferguson on Europe and the collapse of the West By: Michael Posner - Globe and Mail
  
  

Other segments from today's show:

• Parental Abduction
• Chevron oil spills in Latin America as game-changing