A FORMER economic adviser to US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is to help steer a campaign for a Scottish currency, The National can reveal.
The Scottish Currency Group aims to ensure an independent Scotland will have its own currency “as soon as practicable”, perhaps even within a couple of months of a future “independence day”.
More than 1000 people have now joined up, including Professor Stephanie Kelton, author of bestselling book The Deficit Myth and a member of staff at New York’s Stony Brook University. A former senior economic adviser to Bernie Sanders, Kelton is also a senior fellow at the Schwartz Centre for Economic Policy Analysis think tank. She will now act as adviser to the Scottish Currency Group.
The National understands she has made contact with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon since taking up the role.
READ MORE: The Scottish currency question won't go away until the SNP answer it
Kelton joins the group alongside another surprise sign-up – Sam Taylor, No campaigner and chief executive of pro-union forum These Islands. In a recent Facebook post, Taylor said: “I absolutely do not think it would be impossible for Scotland to have its own currency. I think that an independent Scotland’s own currency would be much more workable than sterlingisation, but that currency would inevitably be weaker than sterling.”
Dr Tim Rideout, convenor of the Scottish Currency Group, said he’d considered Taylor’s request to join carefully before accepting. He stated: “We are not just a Yes bubble, we have to try and persuade non-believers.”
Sustainable Growth Commission member Richard Marsh, journalist Lesley Riddoch, Emma Harper MSP and John McNally MP have also joined up.
Rideout said: “We would like to welcome all our new members, particularly Professor Kelton who has one of the best theoretical understandings of how a modern currency and state functions work.”
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