Niall Furguson is perhaps the closest thing the UK has to Ann Coulter. He's not a real economist or historian, despite his teaching privileges at Harvard. He's a right wing television commentator with a particular mean spirited, provocative style. He loves to push the buttons of his political and academic opponents.

On May 2nd, speaking to over 500 financial advisors at the Tenth Annual Altegris Conference in Carlsbad, California, Mr. Furguson once again attacked the greatest, most influential economist of the 20th Century. No transcript is available, but he essentially said that the motivation behind Keynes' famous quote, "In the long run, we are all dead," stems from his being both gay and childless. The argument that Keynes' alleged homosexuality weakens or invalidates his economic theories has been a staple of anti Keynes criticism for seven decades.

This is not Ferguson's first homophobic slur against Lord Keynes. As long ago as 1995, in an article for Spectator, Furguson asserted that Keynes opposed the 1919 Treaty of Versailles (which formally ended WWI) because he was sexually attracted to the German representative at the negotiations. That was to argue that Keynes was literally gay for Germany. Then, famously in a 1999 book, he accused the greatest economist of the twentieth century of picking up young men in London.

What is it with all these personal attacks on a man who can't defend himself? Could it be projection? Isn't it always?

I noticed that the Harvard History Department was unavailable for comment on Ferguson's latest nasty remarks. Apparently his nose is broken because the American public refuses to embrace the imperial project he believes the Unites States must pursue in order to be true to its destiny. Poor Niall.