‘Unionist politicians weaponised my words’ Comments about independence taken out of context, professor says
ATOP political economist has hit out at Unionist politicians for taking his comments “out of context” and using them to claim the case for independence had been “demolished”.
Mark Blyth, a professor of international economics at Brown University in the US and a former adviser to the Scottish Government, appeared in a recorded interview at the Scotonomics festival in Dundee over the weekend – and a clip of him speaking was widely shared on social media.
The Scotonomics festival pointed out that clip to which Blyth was referring was not shared by them, but by Sam Taylor, the chief executive of the proUnion These Islands group.
In the clip, he argued against Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – a view of economics taken by experts such as Professor Richard Murphy – which says that a currencyissuing government can spend through money creation, not taxaday tion. Blyth said: “I’m the Fox Mulder of MMT. I want to believe, right? But there’s a thing called the current account constraint and, at the end of the day, if you’re a small, open economy, you need to have things you can sell to everybody else to get the stuff that you don’t make.
“Scotland doesn’t make very much. Cars, phones, drugs, MRI scanners. All that shit is going to have to be bought with other stuff that you sell. So the notion that ‘it’s all right, we’ll just basically default’ – and then we’ll just print some money. What could possibly go wrong with that?”
Blyth further criticised SNP rhetoric on independence, saying: “You can’t really say Brexit is the worst thing ever then commit the biggest Brexit of all time. Which is literally what this is. “So if you’re going to think about this, being independent, you’ve got to think very sensibly about what this means and how you’re going to develop income-generating assets to pay for stuff. Why? Because at the end of the
discussed MMT and Scotland. Note. Less than two minutes long and all on the applicability of a theory to a case. Now get this: [a link to an article headlined: ‘Ex-Nicola Sturgeon adviser ‘demolishes’ economic case for Scottish independence’]
“Instantly weaponised and turned into a wholesale attack on independence. The Argentina comment is completely taken out of context. This is weaponisation.”
He added: “This is why I’m done ever talking about Scotland. It’s toxic. No one wants any actual discussion of options. You say X and they say you said Y and then spend time writing corrections. Life’s too short.”
Tory economy spokesperson Liz Smith had said: “This is a devastating demolition of the economic case for independence by a former adviser to the SNP government. It’s an evisceration of the absurd and baseless reassurances from nationalists that tearing Scotland out of the UK would somehow be pain-free.
“The reality is that an independent Scotland would lead to a hard border with by far, our greatest trading partner, and put our entire economy, which is already stagnating under the SNP’s high-tax regime, at risk.”
LibDem economy spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “It’s bad enough for the SNP that their economic case for independence has been demolished by a leading academic but for it to be demolished by a leading academic that the SNP leadership endorsed is devastating.”
In response to Blythe, Scotonomics wrote: “It fitted nicely with their agenda. Rather than highlight other aspects, they focused on one part.”
You can find the full interview at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=C33RWFYec3A