Project Fear predicted economic meltdown if Britain voted leave. Where are the devastated high streets, job losses and crashing markets?
In other Brexit news, Sweden warns the UK about cutting corporate taxes. How should the UK respond? Who is in control?
What Happened to Promised Armageddon?
The Guardian reports Brexit Armageddon was a Terrifying Vision – but it Simply Hasn’t Happened.
Unemployment would rocket. Tumbleweed would billow through deserted high streets. Share prices would crash. The government would struggle to find buyers for UK bonds. Financial markets would be in meltdown. Britain would be plunged instantly into another deep recession.
Remember all that? It was hard to avoid the doom and gloom, not just in the weeks leading up to the referendum, but in those immediately after it. Many of those who voted remain comforted themselves with the certain knowledge that those who had voted for Brexit would suffer a bad case of buyer’s remorse.
The financial markets are serene. Share prices are close to a record high, and fears that companies would find it difficult and expensive to borrow have proved wide of the mark. Far from dumping UK government gilts, pension funds and insurance companies have been keen to hold on to them.
City economists had predicted an immediate rise in the claimant count measure of unemployment in July. That hasn’t happened either. This week’s figures show that instead of a 9,000 rise, there was an 8,600 drop.
Pack of Lies Clearly Visible
Armageddon fears were purposely over-hyped from the beginning. Now reality has set in.
Project fear backfired. People can easily see what liars David Cameron and the nannycrats in Brussels were.
Project Remain: Where are the admissions “We were wrong?”
Worst Case Scenario for EU
That the UK has gone on as normal has to be one of the worst fears for the nannycrats in Brussels. There is life, not death after Brexit. What country will be next to figure that out?
Some rough times are likely ahead for the global economy, including the UK. But in the long run, Brexit will be a good thing for the UK, which means it will be a bad thing from the point of view of Brussels.
Sweden Warns U.K. Against Aggressive Tax Cuts Amid Brexit Talks
The nannycrats are now worried that the UK will do something smart, like lower corporate taxes again.
Today, Sweden Warns U.K. Against Aggressive Tax Cuts Amid Brexit Talks.
The U.K. should avoid any drastic steps to cut corporate taxes, or similar measures, as it prepares to start talks on leaving the European Union, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said.
If the U.K. wants some time to think about the situation, this will also give EU countries some time,” Loefven told Bloomberg after giving a speech in Stockholm on Sunday. “On the other hand, you hear about plans in the U.K. to, for example, lower corporate taxes considerably. If they, during this time, begin that kind of race, that will of course make discussions more difficult.”
Stellar Opportunity for UK to Set Example for the World
By all means the UK should precisely make things more difficult.
Everyone says, Brexit terms need to be negotiated. Actually, the UK can pick up its marbles and go home. Who could stop the UK from doing just that?
On July 11, I wrote Stellar Opportunity for UK to Set Example for the World.
In that post I proposed among other things a recommendation “The UK should preemptively stick it to the EU by slashing its corporate tax rate to 10%, lower than any country in the EU.”
I was unaware at the time that UK chancellor George Osborne had already decided to cut taxes, but by a lesser amount than I suggested.
Precise Way to Start Negotiations with EU Mules: Get France to Piss and Moan
In a follow-up post I wrote Precise Way to Start Negotiations with EU Mules: Get France to Piss and Moan.
Michel Sapin Pisses and Moans
First Step in Training a Mule
There’s an old saying “The first step in training a mule is to hit it as hard as you can in the head with a stick.”
I don’t really advise that with mules, but it is the precise thing to do to EU nannycrats.
Reflections on Clearness
“It’s clear that the UK can’t participate in the big decisions involving the EU’s future,” said Emmanuel Macron, France’s economy minister.
Well, it’s equally clear the EU cannot participate in big decisions involving the UK’s future.
And with his plan to cut corporate taxes, chancellor Osborne just hit nannycrat mules in Germany, France, and Belgium in the head with not a stick, but a brick.
Trade War the Right Way
The UK should preemptively stick it to the EU by slashing its corporate tax rate to 10%, lower than any country in the EU.
Set Example for the World
Shed of inane EU rules and regulations coupled with the freedom to do anything it wants, the UK has a golden opportunity to embrace the benefits of genuine free trade and growth via low taxes.
I have often stated the first country that fully embraces free trade, regardless of what any other country does, will come out stunningly ahead.
The UK now has that chance.
Negotiation Progress
I suggest the UK cram it straight down their throats by lowering taxes to 10% right now. This will set proper the negotiation tone and inform the nannycrats in Brussels who calls the shots.
France and Germany threatened to make things difficult for the UK. But as I have stated all along, the UK, not the EU, has the upper hand in these negotiations.
Import/export math proves the point. The UK imports more from the the EU than it exports to them.
For details, please see “No Cherry Picking” Says Merkel; Risk of Global Trade Collapse says Mish.
The more the EU pisses and moans, the more successful Brexit will be for the UK.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
No shock in this corner as fear mongering, straw-men and red herrings are some of (((their))) primary tools.
Just ask Joel Stein:
“But I don’t care if Americans think we’re running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
It always ends with pogroms.
And they never see it coming. Never.
People are smart. Groups of people are stupid. Really stupid. The media assists with this stupidity and magnifies it hugely.
Specifically, nobody … NOBODY … takes the time to look at Cause and Effect.
For example, Juncker claims, more or less, that England will enter dystopia if Brexit occurs. NOBODY ask him to explain the course of events that will make this happen. The media and the dumb bells who believe it just accept it
Nobody even contemplates how the predicted problems will happen, what the chain of events is, and if they are a fixed eventuality or if possibly Junker’s thinking has a few flaws. Or maybe he’s lying.
People knew it would be OK.
Groups of people crapped their pants.
The real question is why people let groups who consistently display extreme stupidity and gullibility speak for them.
Ayn Rand referred to it as “messaging” vs journalism
I guess UK just kicked the armageddon can way down the road
Everyone seems to be pissing and moaning about Great Britain’s truly remarkable performance at Rio – especially the French. Good, I’m so pleased! There is nothing quite so satisfying to the British as pissing the French. Unfortunately we can’t go around sinking their fleet these days (though it was a regular occurrence in years gone by), and ‘team UK’ won just about every single war against the French since about 1200 – Agincourt, Crecy and so on. So maybe the authorities should consider the introduction of an Olympic sport especially set up to piss the French. I am sure Britain, Germany and Spain, and a good many other nations would compete intensely for what would quickly become a blue ribbon, hugely popular and highly entertaining event.
True, few things are as enjoyable as watching the French moan….
On purpose?
” French media agencies ridicule the way that the Egyptian Military Band performed the French National Anthem, accusing the “Mother of the World” in distorting the “Marseillaise.”
A video was published on “Tweeter”, showing the Egyptian Military Band playing the French National Anthem, upon the arrival of the President Francois Hollande to Egypt to the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The military band’s performance was inconsistent and uncoordinated. Melodies overlapped, and the tune of the French National Anthem, which was originally the anthem of the French Revolution,became distorted.
“BFMTV” channel’s website described the performance of the “Marseillaise by the Egyptian National Orchestra as “strange”!, while ” Le Point ” magazine’s website said that “The Choir of the Egyptian army deformed the “Marseillaise.””
Very fitting. A tin-pot anthem for a tin-pot President!
Patience, Mish, patience. The significance of Brexit as a catalyst for the upcoming global enema will depend in the intermediate term upon how the next dominant minority decides to write history.
Oh, and that Joel Stein article, typical Zioglobalist pseudosarcastic doublespeak. Who the F does he think he is with such disgusting hubris, Richard Perle?
In reality, as I have said all along, the UK has all the cards in this poker game. If the EU tried to launch any kind of trade war against the UK, the EU would collapse immediately into a depression….The UK should keep sticking it to the Euro-thugs and laughing as they squirm. How about 8% for a corporate tax rate, haha!
Ladies and gentlemem, the coroner has left the building, as the decedant rises to life.
I have always admired the Brits. The meat gelatin pies and the liver pate you can have but the UK has a great culture overall.
This just proves Trump right again – w/regard to how dishonest our mainstream media is.
Look folks….when you lose honesty in the media you lose a HUGE chunk of your freedom.
If you have a dishonest media you are not truly free, regardless of what you may think.
Down the slippery slope we go, and where we stop nobody knows.
The UK needs to match and not exceed the lowest corporate tax rate and let the rest of the EU race to the bottom. Thus, no real gain from a 10% rate until some other EU state matches it. 12% is good enough.
The UK needs to claim and enforce its “Fishing Rights”. They should negotiate a sharing agreement with Iceland and sink any EU fishing boat that fishes in their waters. This would be a BIG RED FLAG to the rest of the EU. Note, The UK is still a member of the EU and can bring it down by unilateral action. The EU needs the UK more than the UK needs the EU, just look at the military assets of the UK v the military assets of the EU.
I doubt that France would protect any non-French fishing boat sunk by the Brits, More likely, France would start sinking non-French fishing boats fishing in their waters.
Once you move France to go along, the EU collapses. This can all be done before Article 50 is formally declared.
BREXIT is the like the U.S. Declaration of Independence or France’s The Rights of Man.
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Seems to me we need at least a decade to know the full effects of Brexit, good or bad. Reminds me that in his second year Michael Jordan had a bad injury and missed of the NBA season. People in Portland were saying, hey, maybe the Trail Blazers did the right thing picking Sam Bowie (injury plagued in college) instead of Jordan. Ain’t no one saying that now.
A decade?
Sounds wise.
Sure why not.
BTW Did we get a decade ” to know the full effects of Bremain, good or bad.”…or did that just a free pass on orders from the man behind the curtain?
To think that EU is only a economic construction is pure ignorance, The main objective was (and still is) TO AVOID MILITARY CONFLICTS in the most violent continent in the last 3 centuries, in this has been successful …and you like it or not in the economy too.
Analyzing EU with “nannycrats” and other silly notions denotes only the lack of culture, lack of meaningful readings and shortsighted view of the writer…pity-
Please tell us how well it’s working out. There was no Marine Le Pen or AfD. When was someone running on an anti-immigration platform poised to become the president of Austria?
The Euro was supposed to unite Europe. It made a mess of it.
I recall Hank Paulsen, Bernanke and Co. saying the same things about the financial crisis and how the banks needed bailouts….Except America believed all the lies and fearmongering…oh and that whole WMD thing before Iraq invasion….
Again, lack of accountability for politicians, regulators, media and bureaucrats. They can say anything they want and not be held accountable. As an aside, what gives the media the right to holler about Trump and hold him accountable.
What needs to be done is line up these guys, especially Carney and ask them why has all the things they predicted not happened. Line in 2009, the Queen should do it again and to spice it up can also ask them whether they were saying all this to get people so scared that they will vote for remain – No dithering or passing the buck allowed…
The four groups, forming a power cartel, with the goal of serving themselves and themselves only, want to exercise the “tyranny of the intellectuals” on the poor populace. The temerity of it.
Nothing has changed because nothing has changed, Britain is still a member of the EU and will be for some time (years) yet. If they leave (I will believe that when I see it) all sorts of problems are going to rise. Britain has been living way beyond it’s means for decades, there will be consequences.
Whow. Quality obtuseness discussion. You do like the word “collapse” guys a lot. Good luck with your confidence, might be quite funny btwn 8 p.m. – 3 a.m., sad during the day light. Nobody should drink / smoke that much. The history spins in circles. And your corp. tax idol? What about 2%, you sweet Buffetts?:) Mike, Prague.