Published in the Edinburgh Evening News, March 28th, 2024. Professor Mark Blyth made some very silly comments at a recent Scottish economics conference where he was invited to speak. He claimed an independent Scotland would have a negative balance of payments, would have nothing to sell to the world, and would have to pay its share of UK debt. He’s wrong on all three counts.
Once again Leah you have had to teach a professor of economic some fundamental principles of economic theory as identified by Adam Smith. You have to ask yourself, surely Mark Blyth must understand these fundamentals of economics, how could he possibly teach the subject if he was so ignorant of its basis? So it can't possibly be ignorance, it must be deliberate misrepresentation.
I am sure your thesis would have been enlightening :). It’s fine that he is tied to a well established paradigm but sounds as if he offered no critical or comparative analysis of the possible limitations of his position ( sometimes economist seem to forget that Economics is a Social Science and all that implies) and worse drew ( if I’ve understood you) some very specific conclusions about Scotland’s inability to operate as an independent economy with no empirical basis for his views.
These were my thoughts when I read his decidedly aggrieved comments. I'm not an economist, but the facts are plain, especially in Believe in Scotland's comprehensive publications.
From today’s comments- while he has views (most) many would not agree with, he was invited to share them and elements seem to have been edited to support a unionist view which he would not fully support. Interesting example of the toxic action to support the union?
My takeaway fron the Scotonomics Conferemce is that we need many kinds of sovereignty for independence to be successful, amongst which is resource sovereignty. At the moment Scotland owns very little of its resourcesn and resource sovereignty will be harder to obrain than monetary sovereignty.
"It's not the money that is the problem it's the resources."
It almost makes you agree with Gove that 'experts' are not all they are cracked up to be. The system itself is ignorant; certainly self-servingly blind.
Prof Blyth perhaps needs to take account of Scotland's colonial 'condition':
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/the-real-economic-price-of-the-uk-union-for-scots/
well said Leah!
Once again Leah you have had to teach a professor of economic some fundamental principles of economic theory as identified by Adam Smith. You have to ask yourself, surely Mark Blyth must understand these fundamentals of economics, how could he possibly teach the subject if he was so ignorant of its basis? So it can't possibly be ignorance, it must be deliberate misrepresentation.
I am sure your thesis would have been enlightening :). It’s fine that he is tied to a well established paradigm but sounds as if he offered no critical or comparative analysis of the possible limitations of his position ( sometimes economist seem to forget that Economics is a Social Science and all that implies) and worse drew ( if I’ve understood you) some very specific conclusions about Scotland’s inability to operate as an independent economy with no empirical basis for his views.
I hope you send him this and tell him to ‘think again’- either not good at his subject or has another agenda?
These were my thoughts when I read his decidedly aggrieved comments. I'm not an economist, but the facts are plain, especially in Believe in Scotland's comprehensive publications.
I watched that show in disbelief, bloody (adopted) Americans coming here with 'project fear' Well it won't work this time pal!
From today’s comments- while he has views (most) many would not agree with, he was invited to share them and elements seem to have been edited to support a unionist view which he would not fully support. Interesting example of the toxic action to support the union?
My takeaway fron the Scotonomics Conferemce is that we need many kinds of sovereignty for independence to be successful, amongst which is resource sovereignty. At the moment Scotland owns very little of its resourcesn and resource sovereignty will be harder to obrain than monetary sovereignty.
"It's not the money that is the problem it's the resources."
He was there to disrupt and make us think.
Yes- I wondered how Richard would have viewed his views. Maybe you can get them on the same platform to ‘share’ their views 😂
It almost makes you agree with Gove that 'experts' are not all they are cracked up to be. The system itself is ignorant; certainly self-servingly blind.