cnn | If there's been one consistent thread running through the U.S.
economic story since 2008, it's been the steady drumbeat of gloom.
Outright recession or
sub-standard growth, stubbornly high unemployment and fiscal crises have
been the topics du jour when it comes to the world's biggest economy.
But now an unlikely
champion for U.S. growth under the Obama administration has emerged -- a
former adviser to a Republican Party presidential candidate and Harvard
history professor, Niall Ferguson, who says America could actually be
heading toward a new economic "golden age."
And it has nothing to do with Washington and everything to do with energy.
Ferguson, who is also an
author and commentator, believes the production of natural gas and oil
from shale formations via a process known as "fracking" -- forcing open
rocks by injecting fluid into cracks -- will be a game changer.
"This is an absolutely
huge phenomenon with massive implications for the U.S. economy, and I
think most people are still a little bit slow to appreciate just how big
this is," he said in Hong Kong this week.
"Conceivably it does mean a new golden age."
