I'll be speaking (remotely) at the Scottish Currency Group conference this weekend:
You can also attend remotely.
And this should be of interest to people way beyond Scotland because the Group, which is heavily MMT-influenced, is looking at how to build an economy free from the influences of London and the City, and many people are interested in that.
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Presumably (the excellent) Scotenomics will be part of the conference??
Yes, I think so
William Thomson is speaking on Saturday morning about the EU fiscal rules. Kairin is on the panel on Sunday.
🙂
EU Fiscal rules.
In that context, I’d question the wisdom of Scotland joining the EU. At very best, the Euro is an unfinished project which reduces member states to the status +/- of UK county councils – they can issue debt (within limits), they can collect taxes & thats it. (oh and a central bank over which there is no control).
Scotland might be well advised to ally itself with Norway, it has what the Norwegians lack – shallow waters, it has what the EU wants, an inexhaustable supply of off-shore wind (plus other things – e.g fish – but again – I’d ally with Norway – who drives the EU bonkers wrt fish).
William Thomson from Scotonomics is speaking at the conference. I’m providing an outline of proposals to establish a National Pension Fund as the means to provide universal DB pensions alongside the state pension as well as functioning as a wealth fund to invest in Scotland, taking ownership of infrastructure and providing capital to start and grow new companies and keep them Scottish.
Thanks, Jim
And also useful would be for folks to read Prof Steve Keen’s article sent out on the 19th October entitled ‘Gaslighting us on private debt’.
It’s good
I’d love to attend but unfortunately I’m unable to this weekend! Great to see that you Richard will be delivering a presentation. Pity is that you won’t be joined by Steve Keen. Have you read his recent article ‘Gaslighting us on private debt’? No doubt you’ll enlighten the attendees on these matters.
Let’s see what is possble in half an hour.
Dear Scotland
Don’t join the euro.
Create a poond – or whatever, I don’t care what you call it – just please have your own currency. One’s own currency is one of the purest expressions of sovereignty.
Agreed PSR, the whole EU/EFTA/eea question has to be carefully considered, but the crucial factor has to be a sovereign currency – I think ‘the poon’ is a winner! Fortunately the Scottish economics group are switched on. Tim & Jim get it and Richard has been very helpful with advice.
I genuinely believe this is not an issue – the commitment to join the euro is gven but then it is ensured that the convergence conditions are not met, as Sweden has done.
My concern re the EU and its convergence conditions is that Sweden is a mature longstanding nation and has both more clout and flexibility than new nation trying to find its way in a very precarious world. Hence the need to explore EFTA & eea as potential alternatives.