Markets operating freely are great, aren't they? The invisible hand and all that. Just a few small snags sadly: unregulated markets are prone to trade cycles of increasing amplitude, unsustainable asset-price bubbles, monopolisation, and gross societal inequality among other problems. So regulation and political intervention become indispensable if eventual collapse is to be avoided. If those are the regular corrections you are referring to, I respectfully agree.
I was thinking more in terms of fear and greed within a light touch framework of regulation and political intervention. I can't help but think of Gordon Brown's abolition of boom and bust prior to the crash of 2008, his expansion of the economy built on debt was doomed to failure IMHO and we have been teetering on the brink ever since stabilised by QE. QE is an ongoing experiment that has never been tried before. Who knows when, where and how it will end ?
QE will end if the rate of inflation threatens to rise, obviously, and if inflation actually does rise too much, the interest rate will be raised above 0.5%. In the meantime, the capitalisation of the previously under-capitalised banks can be increased by use of QE without killing the economy in the process. Everyone's a winner!
Except savers, but losing some of the value of your savings might be better than losing it all. QE is part of a deliberate policy to inflate away debt. It transfers wealth from savers to debtors. Maybe it is a price worth paying to prevent a global colapse of the financial institutions but let's not pretend 'everyone's a winner'. But I concede it might be better than the alternative, we will never know.
Independence for Scotland? I want whatever the Scots want - that is to say I don't overly care one way or the other. I like Scotland a lot. My previous job in the Whisky biz took me to Scotland quite frequently and had me dealing with the Scots on an almost daily basis. They are a fine, courteous, hospitable people. I tend to prefer them to the English... Their country is very beautiful, they have real traditions and a sense of roots, unlike much of the homogenised England. The food can be excellent, their hotels either top class or completely dire ( with little in between). So why wouldn't you want them to be independent if that's what they wanted for themselves? I'd be in favour of Welsh independence too, if that's what they wanted ( though cant see how Wales would be viable - unlike Scotland). It might be good for England too, which doesn't have enough sense of self. As a conquering nation it always plays down patriotism for fear of upsetting one of the countries it subjugated. Maybe if you remove the Valium that is North Sea oil, England would have to get real, have a long hard look at itself and invent a proper paradigm for making money which isn't just banking and opening shops. Naploeon was pretty much on the money - England is a nation of shopkeepers. They do it very well but as a real income generator?
The English can keep the revenue from the oil and gas fields, after all it was our money that paid for it. The Scots can have Tizer, fried Mars Bars and Haggis. Sound fair ? In all seriousness, it is up to the Scots to decide but they should make an informed choice. Such as what currency will the use, will they stay in Europe, what will the do for a defence budget ? I don't think they can use the revenue from the North Sea. It required a huge investment from the UK and they won't be prepared to just give it away. Plus the settlement from the UK to Scotland is very generous. I doubt the GDP they'll produce would have saved HBOS and RBS !
