Timing is everything

Niall Ferguson's new book trumpets the triumph of capitalism...whoops!

Ferguson, it seems, is - or was, at least - a fan of money, and the way the economy works. But it's as if he had written a fan's book about Manchester United, to be published on the eve of the Champions League final, only to discover that the whole team had been arrested for brawling the night before the match, and the board had been embezzling money, and the manager had bribed the referee. Right now, would you want to have written a book called The Ascent of Money?