Y’know what really worries me about this? If the Brits could do something that stupid and self-destructive under a populist, xenophobic impetus, so can we. In the xenophobia department, our racism “trumps” theirs, any day.
We could end up with Trump in the White House. All of a sudden, it doesn’t look at all unthinkable.
Hope you had your assets positioned for this eventuality. I know my guys have moved out of some stocks into bonds…but maybe too little, too late.
Conversation at this morning’s business networking breakfast suggested (hopefully?) that US markets may benefit because money will move out of Britain, much of it in our direction. That remains to be seen, IMHO.
I don’t know…I think there will be some knee jerk reaction BUT in the long run IMHO this may actually benefit England. Things are not good in GB and some blame the EU agreement….kind of like NAFTA is blamed here for a lot of things. I can see a lot of frustration in GB’s citizens very similar to the US citizentry. Maybe the Brits are tired of taking the back seat to the Germans and like many see no good end to the fiscal madness in Greece, Portugal and Spain….just to name a few.
The fiscal madness in Spain has allowed a large number of retired working Brits to retire there and live a great deal better than they could in England. Those people will now have to return to GB, upending their lives and lowering their quality of living.
Things were not all that great in GB long, long before this. I spent several months living there when I was in graduate school. Despite the cool trains and the fact that London was a world financial center, the standard of living for most people was noticeably lower than for their economic counterparts in the US.
As an example: the kind of department store that was regarded as mid-level — at the level of, say, a Dillard’s — was what you and I would think of as a K-Mart. Furniture and clothing that most Americans could afford was out of reach for most Brits. Costs were high to begin with, and then the VAT jacked up prices SO high that you couldn’t afford the most ordinary things. The gap between the very rich and everyone else was very striking. And many of the very rich were foreigners, especially Arabs.
Prices were a little lower in the countryside, if you could find work there or didn’t mind an hour or more (one-way) of commuting by train and subway.
Oh crud….I used the term GB (Great Britain) and should have used England. Pretty sure Scotland and Ireland are gonna stay put.
Well, therein lies one of the several problems. Scotland and Ireland are part of Great Britain.
Ireland has historically been restive. But…Scots, in the run-up to this referendum, have said they would consider leaving Great Britain to protect their own economy. Scotland has profited from being part of the EU and does not want to leave.
Fracturing Britain in that way will certainly not help England.
Yeah, that was one of my thoughts, that since voting this down was a ‘sure thing’ before the actual vote, this means that really anything could happen. Strange times, but it’s honestly not surprising with how the middle class keeps getting picked over at the expense of making the rich even richer. People are just sick of watching those already ahead get further ahead.
Well, I don’t think anyone thought it was going to be a sure thing. I subscribe to the Economist, which is a British paper. They lobbied vigorously for staying, but a) it was clear they were concerned that Brexit would pass and b) they openly said it would be extremely close.
The populist movement is surging because jobs have been shipped overseas to countries where people can be made to work for slave wages (or in some instances, in actual slavery) with no safety and health regulations. The result has been that the former middle class in “first-world” countries is dying.
And I hafta ask you: how mad does it make _you_ that you can’t buy ANYTHING made in American anymore? Have you looked at those “Made in America” sites that promise to help you buy goods made by US workers in America? It’s all kitsch and clutter. The quality products that American workers used to make have gone away. While Detroit Iron used to be dangerous junk and deserved to be replaced by Japanese and European cars, most other US products were well made. Remember when a dishwasher or a refrigerator lasted as long as you were likely to live in your house?
Many people who made a middle-class living in blue-collar jobs are not well educated and not liberal in their political and social leanings. They see their jobs are being taken by people of color, and instead of blaming the uber-rich, they blame the people of color. That resentment focuses on immigrants and, in the US, on American blacks and Latinos, which gives a demagogue like Donald Trump a tool to whip up the troops.
A political class that enriches itself and builds power by exploiting fear and hatred is not what any country should welcome.
The middle class really has no choice and the vote is the only tool they have to cope. So as the blue collar middle class evaporates their college educated offspring find no jobs after college. If I meet one more 20 something with their “Bachelors” working as a waiter or waitress I think I’ll scream… Henry Ford was very smart and paid his employees enough money so they could afford to buy cars themselves…It seems this rule no longer applies. I think the powers that be just don’t get how angry people are and how ready for change they are. Like it or not….Trump has a real shot…Hilary is not without sin and Trump has no shame….Isn’t it sad that this is our only choices?