Brad DeLong criticizes The Financial Times for enabling Niall Ferguson's obvious errors of fact

Similarly, I think I am qualified to lament that the Financial Times published Niall Ferguson's misleading screed on July 19, 2010....

Could we please have some acknowledgement of the fact that the reason the debt-to-GDP ratio did not rise across the 1930s was because GDP rose, not because debt didn't rise? Debt more than doubled from $22.5 billion to $49.0 billion between June 30, 1933 and June 30, 1941. But nominal GDP rose from $56 billion in 1933 to $127 billion in 1941.
And could we please have some acknowledgement that our 9.4% of GDP deficit in fiscal 2010 pales in comparison to the 30.8% of GDP deficit of 1943, or the 23.3% and 22.0% deficits of 1944 and 1945?

Niall Ferguson should not do this. The Financial Times should not enable Niall Ferguson to do this.

Grasping Reality with Every Possible Tentacle
In Email, Niall Ferguson Requests I Acknowledge His "I Would Have Gotten Away With It If Not For Those Meddling Bloggers!" Rant
J. Bradford DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

Take that, Financial Times. News source need to do some fact checking.