David Howdle:
Scotland doesn’t have a deficit. It is, in law, obliged to balance its books. That is why it always ends the financial year with a very small surplus which unionists then make a song and dance about because they allege that that money is being withheld from the public. Any deficit is that of the UK, not Scotland.
It is normal and appropriate for countries to have a deficit. A country’s national deficit is equal to the surplus of private individuals and companies. If a country runs a national surplus that means that the private sector (you and me) go into debt. That is the inevitable result of all these years of tory austerity. See Professor Richard Murphy here for example:
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2013/12/05/why-a-budget-surplus-is-the-last-thing-we-need/.
Other sensible economists to listen to are Professors Stephanie Kelton, Bill Keen and Bill Mitchell. There are others.
Of course the money which is spent by government and which goes to creating the national (UK) deficit, may well be inappropriately spent on fantasy projects such as HS2, Hinkley nuclear power station, refurbishing the Houses of Parliament, refurbishing Buckingham Palace, Trident, etc. etc. So a country can run a deficit created by bad spending decisions. But that does not mean that a national deficit is a bad thing per se
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Crikey!
By the way the letter “e” is missing from the very last word.
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And another, slightly more serious, correction – I’m pretty sure you mean *Steve* Keen.
Seriously though, that’s a great article – keep up the good work on macroeconomic education!
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Well spotted! I think I was pounding the keyboard too early in the morning.
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Note the author.
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Ah yes, we are members of the same MMT group on Facebook.
Still, kudos to you for giving David the blogtime!
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Apologies for going slightly off-topic. Just felt that on this day of apparently self-inflicted bad headlines a wee bit of good news should get its just airing. Scotland’s sole remaining – and Catalunya’s newest – MEP (Prof. Clara Ponsati) has received her credentials from the European Parliament. Link and snippet below:
https://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/exiled-former-catalan-minister-picks-up-mep-credentials
Clara Ponsatí, the former Catalan education minister now in exile in Scotland, collected her credentials as an MEP in Brussels on Wednesday, despite the Spanish authorities requesting that the UK prevent her from leaving the country.
Ponsatí joins the exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and former health minister Toni Comín in the European Parliament, despite the efforts of the Spanish judiciary to extradite them over the independence bid in Catalonia in 2017.
Ponsatí works at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where the former education minister went following the failed independence bid, and is currently fighting extradition with the full hearing of her case expected to start in Edinburgh on May 11.
Despite threats from Spain’s electoral commission that her seat would be declared vacant, the EU parliament recognized Ponsatí as an MEP after the UK officially left the European Union on January 31 and five of its seats in the chamber went to Spain.
As with Puigdemont and Comín, her MEP status gives her immunity from arrest, although the Spanish judiciary has asked the parliament to waive the legal protection on the grounds that it no longer extends to Britain now that it has left the EU.
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Keeping
Spreading
The
Word:
MMT is how the economy works in the real world.
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