Currency unknowns weigh on an independent Scotland
The image that comes to mind is of schoolboys squabbling in the playground, Alex Salmond proclaims that the pound sterling is the commo...
Philistines may carp but scientists should read for the sky
In 1969, Robert Wilson director of the National Accelerator Laboratory, was testifying before Congress. He sought funding for a particl...
Scottish Tax Policy
‘Revenue Scotland’ is a grand title for a body that administers two modest taxes. I am assuming that the present discussion takes...
How big data lets us see a little further into the unknown
It is Monday, and it is raining again in the south of France. But it was sunny yesterday. And it was also dry last Wednesda...
Do not criminalise traders just for being in the know
Equity Funding was one of the great corporate frauds of the 1970s. The company grew rapidly by issuing 60,000 phony insurance pol...
The world’s richest stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
Dear Bill Gates
We have never met, but I hope you won’t mind my writing since your recent open letter on what you describe as develo...
For truth on immigration, look to the Bard not politicians
Policy drives evidence in modern political debate. Nowhere is this more true than in discussion of the economics of immigration t...
How big data lets us see a little further into the unknown
It is Monday, and it is raining again in the south of France. But it was sunny yesterday. And it was also dry last Wednesda...
Coastal dwellers should take their own chances
About 70% of the surface of the earth is covered in water. For millions of years, the boundaries between sea and land have been in flux...
The economics of Scottish Independence
The 19th century was the century of the rise of large states. Countries became bigger, empires were formed. Continental Eur...