Splendid stuff from Jim Sillars on the currency options in an independent Scotland. He’s scathing about the SNP’s choice of a currency union with the remainder of the UK and argues his case with commendable clarity. It’s encouraging to see a well-known politician getting to grips with the substance of an issue and expressing his…
Here’s a nice clear article by Iain Macwhirter about currency options for an independent Scotland. He looks at the experience of Slovakia which entered a brief currency union with the Czech Republic before being forced to go its own way, eventually joining the euro in 2009. He’s careful not to make direct comparisons with Scotland’s…
The Gold Fetish: Why Shiny Metal Is No Better Than Any Other Money
There’s a great deal of confusion about the nature of money: what it actually is and how it works. I often hear people wax lyrical about the days of the gold standard, when the value of currency was tied to an agreed value of gold, in the belief that gold somehow keeps money honest. They…
Views From The Boatshed 