A TOP economist has hit out at Unionist politicians for taking his comments “out of context” and using them to claim the case for independence had been "demolished".

Mark Blyth, a professor of international economics at Brown University in the US and a former advisor to the Scottish Government, appeared at the Scotonomics festival in Dundee over the weekend – and a clip of him speaking was widely shared on social media.

The Scotonomics festival pointed out that the clip to which Blyth was referring was not shared by them, but by Sam Taylor, the chief executive of the pro-Union These Islands group.

In the clip, he argued against Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – a view of economics taken by experts such as Professor Richard Murphy which says that a currency-issuing government can spend through money creation, not taxation.

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Blyth said: “I'm the Fox Mulder of MMT. I want to believe, right? But there's a thing called the current account constraint and, at the end of the day, if you're a small, open economy, you need to have things you can sell to everybody else to get the stuff that you don't make.

“Scotland doesn't make very much. Cars, phones, drugs, MRI scanners. All that shit is going to have to be bought with other stuff that you sell.

“So the notion that ‘it's all right, we'll just basically default’ … and then we'll just print some money. What could possibly go wrong with that?"

Blyth further criticised SNP rhetoric on independence, saying: “You can’t really say that Brexit is the worst thing ever then commit the biggest Brexit of all time. Which is literally what this is.

“So if you’re going to think about this, being independent, you’ve got to think very sensibly about what this means and how you’re going to develop income-generating assets to pay for stuff.

“Why? Because at the end of the day as a small, open economy, which you then will be, you need to balance your imports and your imports and your exports over the long term, or everyone thinks your currency is shite.

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"At that point they dump it, prefer payments in British pounds, and then you get a run on your foreign exchange, and you get a mini-Argentina on your hands."

The comments were seized upon by the Scottish Tories and the LibDems, who both claimed they were “devastating” and “demolished” the economic case for independence.

What did Professor Mark Blyth have to say about the reaction?

However, Blyth has now spoken out to accuse the Unionist politicians of “weaponising” his words and taking them out of context.

The top economics professor wrote on social media that his words had all been "on the applicability of a theory [MMT] to a case [Scottish independence]".

He said: “So, over the weekend there was an event in Dundee called Scotonomics. I could not attend, so I did a prerecord.

“The interview went all over the place, but the organisers chose to highlight a wee bit where I discussed MMT and Scotland. Note. Less than two minutes long and all on the applicability of a theory to a case.

“Now get this: [a link to an article headlined: ‘Ex-Nicola Sturgeon adviser ‘demolishes' economic case for Scottish independence’]

“Instantly weaponised and turned into a wholesale attack on independence. The Argentina comment is completely taken out of context.

“This is weaponisation.”

He added: “This is why I'm done ever talking about Scotland. It’s toxic.

“No one wants any actual discussion of options. You say X and they say you said Y and then spend time writing corrections. Life's too short. Done.”

In response to Blyth, Scotonomics wrote: “It fitted nicely with their agenda. Rather than highlight other aspects, they focused on one part. So we feel we must share the whole fantastic interview.”

You can find the full Scotonomics interview with Blyth here.