Britain Is Becoming an Emerging Market

[Denzil_DC]

With a plunging pound and deep economic uncertainty, one of Europe’s most robust markets is now looking a lot like the developing world.

Breaking up is hard to do — especially after a 43-year marriage. Which is why the notion that the United Kingdom might engineer a “soft Brexit” from the European Union, the innocent hope of many investors and some Brits, was always a delusion. Instead, Britain’s plunging pound, which has swooned to a staggering 168-year low against a benchmark of other major currencies, is just a taste of the economic deterioration to come.

Instead of the pro-Brexit camp’s promise that the vote was a push for independence from European red tape, the drive for sovereignty has turned into a quixotic exercise in isolationism that shows few signs of ending well. In effect, the United Kingdom has abdicated its chief source of economic and political clout — its close association with the European Union, the world’s largest economy. In so doing, Britain may be on the way to looking more like an emerging market, where suddenly political risk, currency volatility, and uncertainty about the future are the new normal. And if you’re thinking that long-term investment and private spending might suffer as a result, you’re bloody well right.

Despite a raft of warnings, Brexiteers were quick to claim victory in the months following the momentous June referendum. “To me, Brexit is easy,” said a confident Nigel Farage, leader of the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party. Sure, the pound was falling a tad rapidly. But, hey, the economic data didn’t fall off a cliff, and the stock market even hit a new record. But that was the summer sun talking.

The arrival of autumn has brought the onset of reality. One leaked government report estimated the mere cost of the process at an eye-popping $22 billion. That’s substantially more than the U.K.’s yearly contribution to the EU budget, which was supposed to be a source of savings post-Brexit.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/17/britain-is-becoming-an-emerging-market-brexit-europe-united-kingdom-article-50-currency

[Wellstone ruled]

1. And those bull-headed Brit's

have not seen any thing yet. There have been stories about food stuffs from the Continent not being available in Britain because of a lack of new trade agreements. U.S. Companies moving Banking and Manufacturing to the Mainland rather than lose their butts in Britain. Their Housing Market just toke a dump because of the Pound value dropping.

[LeftishBrit]

2. What an almighty mess. What an ALMIGHTY mess.