Economist Criticizes UK’s Anti Currency Union Stance

The Scottish government has welcomed a new economic analysis which strongly attacks the UK Treasury’s opposition to a currency alliance.

Leslie Young, professor of economics at a university in Beijing, claims the Treasury’s position does not stand up to scrutiny.

He was commissioned by businessman Sir Tom Hunter’s new institute to assess the case against a currency union between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Sir Tom is funding academic reports, research and polling in a bid to help people better understand the issues in the referendum, while he says he remains undecided on his vote.

This academic paper is a fierce denunciation of the Treasury’s reasons for opposing a currency union.

However, in response to the piece of work a spokesman for the Treasury reiterated the UK government’s stance that a currency union “is not going to happen”.

The Scottish government wants such an alliance, but the Chancellor, George Osborne, as well as the Lib Dem Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander and Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls have all agreed that their parties would not agree to such a deal.

Mr Osborne cited Treasury analysis which, unusually, was backed up by publication of a memo to ministers from the Treasury’s top official, Sir Nick Macpherson, saying he would not recommend a Westminster government to enter a monetary union with Holyrood.

via BBC

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