General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrying to find a Brexit silver lining.
A horrible decision, the British economy will suffer, as will EU economies. There will be some financial instability around the world, nobody can predict how bad it will be anywhere, but it won't be good. Since a big part of the push was xenophobia and anti-immigration, it gives momentum to that kind of ugliness -- in the Netherlands the anti-immigrant party is calling for a similar referendum right now. And it also threatens the "European experiment".
Here's another thing. Even though it was anti-immigration driving this, it wouldn't have worked if the EU and also the UK government hadn't made such a mess of things economically. Granted, a lot of the blame goes back to the US which caused the financial crisis which started the whole chain of events leading us here, but still, Europe ****ed it up with the austerity push.
Another thing. Brexit was one of the rare instances where economists across the board agreed it was bad. People didn't listen. But can you blame them? We live in a world where Larry Kudlow is considered an economic authority. Where if you don't want environmental regulations, you stick a suit on someone and put them on TV pretending to be a scientist. And where the EU leaders have been screwing over the people there based on a strident austerity-based economic ideology.
"Elites" get a bad name, but we do need them. In all kinds of places. We need medical elites to tell us what will actually make us healthy and what is snake oil. We need engineering elites to tell us whether buildings are going to fall down or not. And we need economic elites to stop us from doing dumb things like Brexit.
So maybe, just maybe, this will start to wake economic elites up to the fact that they can't be this incompetent and greedy. Because here's the deal, elites. You can have a world that's pretty close to what we've had for the last decade or two. Which is a pretty good deal for y'all. CEOs can still be rich, entrepreneurs can become billionaires, even 28-year-old bond traders can drive around like douchebags in Ferraris. But you just can't squeeze every last dime out of the working and middle classes anymore. Or things like this start to happen, which hurts everyone.
So cut the austerity and start redistributing the wealth. Not only is that fairer, it is also more economically sound -- inequality at these levels starts to dampen growth. But even if elites don't care about fairness, maybe they will realize that it is in their own interest to make things fairer because if they don't level the field, then they end up with things like Brexit. Or, god forbid, Donald Trump.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)DanTex
(20,709 posts)Response to DanTex (Reply #2)
rjsquirrel This message was self-deleted by its author.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)I'm not sure how much of the exchange rate is just shock though and it will stabilize back quickly.
If it looks like a favorable exchange rate, I think the wife and I will head over this summer.
C_U_L8R
(44,987 posts)Apparently it's contagious.
Especially thanks to xenophobic
opportunists like NewsCorp
spreading this foul disease.
On edit: sorry that's not silver lining
at all. I'm in a funk over this - even though
I'm going to the UK next week.
I'm too bummed at the Trumpification
of a great nation to be making shopping lists.
dembotoz
(16,785 posts)i see all over that hrc is to cool logical choice.....
if passion drives turn out we are screwd
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)There will be much negotiating and finger pointing between now and then. So much so that the moment the tie is actually broken, people will hardly notice.
All this hand-wringing and foot stomping is just ado. Ado about nothing. MUCH ado about nothing.
TheKentuckian
(25,020 posts)Not arguing your larger point either way right now but I think this particular point is reductionist.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)redgreenandblue
(2,088 posts)The fundamentals are in jeopardy here. Trying to milk market fluctuations in such a time is a risky move.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)OKNancy
(41,832 posts)so unlike some who think it helps him, I think it shows even more how he is a dunce when it comes to anything not in his narrow world.
Hillary should take advantage of his ignorance. Pound him.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Silver linings are few and far between except for British isolationists and dime-store philosophers.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)I must say I don't know the answer to that question.
But cursory recollections of the recent past, seem to indicate that the 'democratic' governments of western Europe are as largely under the influence of dominant/establishment neoliberal philosophies of international financiers as is the US.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,265 posts)which means both Cameron and Osborne, who were pro-Remain, and Gove, Duncan Smith and Johnson, who were pro-Leave. There was no significant pressure on them; they just claimed there was no alternative.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Did this simply follow from basic principles of partisan philosophy, or was it policy pushed by lobbyists of, by, and for finanical institutions?
I seem to remember an awfully lot of news stories which included statements about bankers and financials pushing for punishing austerity for Greece, and Spain, and Italy. I don't remember Tory representatives arguing that, but I don't think their story is much told in the US and would be easy to overlook.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,265 posts)though you might add some blame to the right wing media (eg Murdoch), and to the rest of the media for not challenging it. Yes, it was basic principles of partisan philosophy.
This is talking about austerity in Britain, not what should happen in other EU countries. It's like what the Republican Congress pushed for in the USA, but without a President Obama to fight it.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,265 posts)It might send them down; which is dangerous for some people, but if they were priced rationally, they would be lower there than they already are.
That's about it for silver linings that I can see for the UK.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)We may at least get a less ineffective Labour leader, and more chance of a left-wing government in 2020, out of this.
As silver linings go, it's a bit thin, but it's the best I've found.
uponit7771
(90,301 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)People are the elites of self-determination. We should listen to them for a while. It would be the democratic thing to do.
Stellar
(5,644 posts)Romney would win in 2012. People became complacent and not GOTV. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO THE UNITED STATES! Don't let this be a Brexit - part two.