Voice of doom

Jim Duffy’s doom- laden oldschool attack on a “fiat currency” ( Perspective, 4 September) is hard to follow. All the economies with a high degree of monetary sovereignty ( the US, UK, Japan, Australia, Canada et al) are able to cope with crises like the current pandemic with deficit financing and borrowing to provide financial stimulus and allow the real economy to bounce back and work as fully as possible. After the 2008 recession, the US provided a huge stimulus ($ 787 billion) to reboot the economy, the problem being that it was not big enough! Obama’s adsvisers were financial conser vatives, like Jim Duffy. Over here in the UK, we got lumbered with George Osborne’s austerit y, which made recovery too slow, as in the US. Rishi Sunak is doing precisely the opposite, thankfully. There is a lot of talk of tax rises ahead but that would flatten demand, which is not really what is wanted. CRAWFORD MACKIE

Keith Row, Edinburgh