Scottish independence: It’ll Cost You
THE ECONOMIST: Scottish independence would come at a high price

IN 1698 the nobles and landowners of the Kingdom of Scotland tried to elevate their country to a world trading nation by colonising the isthmus of Panama. The Darien scheme failed and nearly bankrupted the country. Within a decade Scotland had signed an Act of Union with England to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Scots found it tough in the 18th century to be a small nation in a globalising world. But nationalists are an optimistic bunch, and they would dearly like to have another go.

In two years’ time the people of Scotland will be asked whether they want to become an independent sovereign state. It is not often that a 300-year-old union is broken, so the vote will have ramifications far beyond a land of 5m people. Scottish independence could lead to a break-up of the United Kingdom. The Catalans, among other disaffected European groups, see Scottish independence as a harbinger of their own bid for nationhood. Other diverse nation-states watch, and worry. » | From Print Edition | Leaders | Saturday, April 14, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Salmond attacks magazine that called Scotland 'Skintland': First Minister Alex Salmond has said the Economist magazine will ''rue the day'' it published a front cover image likening Scotland to an impoverished nation. ¶ The latest edition uses a map of the country, renamed ''Skintland'', with puns instead of place names such as ''Glasgone'', ''Edinborrow'' and the ''Highinterestlands''. » | Friday, April 13, 2012

Click here to view controversial front page.

Market Meltdown Teaches Europe that Size Matters
GLOBE AND MAIL: Small countries are the biggest victims of the financial crisis, leaving many people looking to bigger nations for economic security

LONDON -- In the centre of Scotland this week, separatist leader Alex Salmond discovered that size has become a problem. He has pegged his political future to the idea of an "arc of prosperity" uniting small countries from Iceland to Ireland through Scotland to Scandinavia.

That sounded good two months ago, when those Celtic tigers and Icelandic miracles were the talk of the economic world and small countries were boasting about their big banks and independent currencies.

Suddenly, the "arc of prosperity" is being called an "arc of insolvency" as small countries have become the biggest victims of the financial crisis.

In the past few weeks, Iceland has gone bankrupt and is now being bailed out by the International Monetary Fund. Ireland is suffering Europe's first real recession and has slashed its government and raised taxes to keep its beleaguered banks afloat. Scandinavian countries are talking seriously for the first time of ditching their currencies, which have plummeted, in favour of joining the big, stable euro.

Across Europe, people are moving their savings and possibly their political support to the security of big countries, big governments, big political parties and big currencies.

Small countries from Lichtenstein to the Canary Islands are learning that being a tax-sheltered banking haven is a fleeting pleasure: When the going gets tough, as it is now, the bank accounts retreat to big, well-known countries. Fear of regulators shutting down the tax shelters - as French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested to U.S. President George W. Bush last weekend - is pulling them away, but so is the fear of having money tied up in a country too small to save its own banks.

That, analysts say, is the problem: In a new era when government has become the guarantor of financial stability and the lender of first resort, nobody wants to touch those countries whose banks are bigger than their economies. >>> Doug Saunders | October 22, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Canada) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Canada) >>>