ONE Nobel laureate that the Scottish Government won't be endlessly citing is that Keynsian saint, and possibly the world's most influential economist, Paul Krugman, who last week called the currency union plan "deeply muddle-headed", just one of several wounding swipes at the independence proposition in his New York Times column.
Krugman is not a good enemy to have, as once he has decided and pronounced on something, he greatly resents anyone presenting him with evidence that he is wrong, however compelling it may be.
Agenda cites the case of Latvia, which dared to disprove some of the great man's theories by staging a fast recovery after administering extreme austerity, causing him to pour contempt on that proudly independent small country at every opportunity. The right-wing Scots historian Niall Ferguson has also crossed swords with him in spectacular style.
Our advice to John Swinney et al is just to let Krugman's criticisms stick to the wall. Arguing with him, in however scholarly a fashion, will just make it worse.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article