News about Kenneth Rogoff

The United States' century as the world's greatest power could be coming to an end more quickly than expected with countries in Asia increasingly likely to pull the plug. Interest payments on the debt overtook spending on defense earlier this month, but it will not be force of arms that brings the country down, according to historian Professor Niall Ferguson. 'Any great power that spends more on debt service than on defense will not stay great for very long,' he said. 'True of Habsburg Spain , true of ancien régime France , true of the Ottoman Empire, true of the British Empire.