There is a simple yet fatal contradiction at the heart of Alex Salmond’s case
for Scottish independence. With self-government comes the need to earn
economic credibility – and yet Salmond is threatening a
confidence-shattering default on Scotland’s share of the national debt, is
clueless about which currency he will adopt, has no idea how to retain a
financial sector in Edinburgh, doesn’t have a realistic plan to deal with
Scotland’s declining oil revenues, hasn’t thought through his future trading
arrangements and continues to support a nonsensical, something-for-nothing
approach to the public finances.
It’s a recipe for disaster, and the very opposite of the cautious, prudent,
pro-market manifesto that would be needed to make independence succeed.
Read the rest
here.
The linked article tells us less about the prospects for Scotland and more about the ideological commitments of the author. People like this have trouble imagining that small countries who are not enamored of the global crony capitalism that goes by the false moniker of "the free market" could ever be "successful," so they make sure to define success in such a way that the small, non-global-capitalist countries can never achieve it.
ReplyDeleteIn their world, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark could never exist.