Detournement

A centrist coup seems to be underway in Italy where the unelected head of state is refusing to appoint the MS5/Lega's choice of Finance Minister. The new coallition seem determined to trigger a confrontation with the EU over fiscal rules. I've got a feeling this is the kind of resistance we would see in the UK if Corbyn gained a majority in the house and tried to enact any genuinely progressive policies.

Growing the economy requires investment from somewhere. The easiest and most effective way to do it is via the government running a deficit. The UK has been trying to grow the economy via private debt based on asset inflation which is crazy and will crash again soon. Foreign investment is pie in the sky thinking for an advanced economy. The economic structures that Wilson proposes aren't all that different from what has been forced on Greece. It is impossible to campaign on this platform and it displays a startling ignorance of prevailing political trends. The entire of premise of getting an RBS drone like Wilson to write this report is actually absurd.

A central bank which does what exactly? The controversial aspect isn't using Sterling. It isn't even matching rUK corporate tax rates. It's committing to cutting the deficit to below 3% in 5-10 years and limiting debt to 50% of GDP and limiting real spending increases to levels less than %growth. It's basically Osbornomics which has completely strangled the UK economy (Q1 2018 growth 0.1%). It's also very similar to the Eurozone fiscal compact which is strangling the economies of southern Europe. It's mandated austerity with none of the monetary levers available to the Eurozone or the UK government which are keeping their economies on life support. Growth is obviously important but needs to be considered in the context of it's effects. But forgetting about that where does the growth even come from in this scenario? It can't come from fiscal expansion which leaves private debt or foreign investment. Private debt is already out of control and exhausted as a lever of growth and a significant increase in foreign investment would require driving down labour costs. We don't need assessments of how other nations of our size have fared because none of them have been in this situation. Recovery from Tory austerity whether in the UK or an independent Scotland won't happen without significant fiscal expansion. It is massively disheartening to see the SNP promote these policies just progressive parties around Europe are looking at alternative methods of funding public spending via national investment banks.

I have and it's a good summary of a mystifying document. The Tories have made a lot of political gain since 2010 by lying about a national economy being comparable to a household budget. The SNP seem to want to actually run the Scottish economy like a household budget. At a time when advanced economies based on private debt are stagnating the SNP are doubling down on a dying model and in a suicidal twist doing it without a central bank.

I've suspected for a while that the SNP are more interested in establishing an apparatus than campaigning for independence but i'm genuinely surprised that they actually knifed the independence movement in the back. Years of piggybacking on the pound after the dissolution of the Union and a commitment to a decade of austerity are policies designed to fail. In 2014 the independence campaign was positive and seemed ahead of the curve. Today's document is regressive and reminiscent of the pre crash SNP when Salmond was brown nosing Goodwin and Trump and Ireland's tax avoidance schemes were aspirational. 50+1 will never be achieved by beige managerialism.