Brexit amusement continues as a leaked phone conversation stirred the ire of UK prime Minister Theresa May.
After meeting with Theresa May last Wednesday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that May was “living in a different galaxy”. Juncker also stated he is “ten times more skeptical than before.”
That’s hardly a shocking revelation to Mish readers but it raised a stink in the UK over leaks.
Via Mish-modified Google translation from FAS, please consider EU Commission Fears Negotiation Failure.
The EU is very skeptical about the successful conclusion of the Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom. The reason for this is the meeting between Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and British Prime Minister Theresa May last Wednesday in London.
As reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Juncker, after two hours of talk, said, “I leave Downing Street ten times more skeptical than I was before.” After the presentation in Commission circles, May had shown no compromise at the meeting and unrealistic ideas about The course of the negotiations, the FAS writes. The probability of a failure of the negotiations was estimated in the circles to “over fifty percent”.
May expressed the view that according to the European treaties, the UK did not owe any money to the other states, which, on the other hand, the EU believes amouts to between 60 and 65 billion euro. She reiterated her view that the Brexit should be a success, but the conviction in Brussels is that this is not possible because Britain is a third country and must be worse off than it is now.
According to FAS, Juncker telephoned the Chancellor Angela Merkel the following morning. He told her his assessment that May was living in a different galaxy and was making illusions.
Galaxies Apart
It does not matter which side is in a different solar system, galaxy, or alternate universe. What matters is the EU, not the UK, has imposed an impossible starting point that the UK cannot possibly accept.
Art of the Deal
In response to Trump Cries Wolf – Backs Down On NAFTA Cancellation Already: “Trump’s Bluff Didn’t Come Off”, a reader commented that I need to understand “The Art of the Deal”
That comment shows a complete misunderstanding of reality. In practice, what everyone knows is meaningless at best and more likely counterproductive.
Trump got to feed his ego when Mexico and Canada called, but nothing of substance was accomplished.
The Wall Street Journal commented on the real reason Why Donald Trump Decided to Back Off Nafta Threat.
Sonny Perdue—the agriculture secretary who took office two days earlier—and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Mr. Trump and showed him a map indicating the states where jobs would be lost if the pact collapsed, according to a person familiar with the matter. Many were farm and border states that voted heavily for Mr. Trump.
Those conversations, along with a flood of calls to the White House from business executives, helped steer Mr. Trump away from an idea that some of his own advisers feared was a rash and unnecessary threat to two trading partners who fully expected to renegotiate the agreement anyway.
Saving Face
Trump got to back off while saving face because Mexico and Canada called him. Those phone calls fed his ego more than enough. It makes Trump look like he won something he didn’t.
The Brexit position is worse. There are 27 egos that need to be placated on one side. Solidarity and egos suggest that getting 27 to make a move is much more difficult than two.
Besides, the positions are galaxies apart.
The “Art of the Deal” says to start with a ridiculous proposition. The problem is obvious. Backing down from that extreme opening position requires 27 egos to bend, just after they all got together for a big kumbaya.
Once again, I repeat Brexit Negotiations: Why Bother?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
May was “living in a different galaxy”
Juncker himself does not live in the real world as he has said that when things get serious “you have to lie”.
“There are 27 egos that need to be placated on one side.”
With any luck, it will be down to 26 come Sunday.
Juncker apparently has the bona fides to speak on this matter, having himself conferred with the leaders of other planets ….
Jean-Claude Juncker : ” J’ai vu les dirigeants d’autres planètes …
Funny stuff that – particularly Nigel Farage’s appearance to the left of Juncker … filmed with a wry sense of humour …
True true.
Come what May……
Juncker better CYA if he wants to keep his…..er….Juncker!
Trump has fallen into the swamp and can’t get up. Or perhaps he was dragged in feet first against his will. The latter is probably closer to the truth. Corruption in government has reached a new pinnacle. Those we elect to office have sold the ones who elected them to office down the river for a handful of gold pieces. We’re now beyond the point of no return. Totally out of control. And it’s just a matter of time before it takes us down. See Rome.
Despite Trump’s inability to fight off all the sharks and keep his promises, I’m still damn proud I voted for him and locked Hillary out of the White House. All her liberal Executive Orders would fly though the system like clockwork without a peep from the judicial branch. And all of us would be up crap creek without a paddle. Hopefully Gorsuch and any other justices that Trump appoints won’t go sideways on us like Roberts did on Obamacare.
Just damn glad I’m as old as I am.
Feel sad for all the youngins and a little guilty since it was my generation that dug the hole that will bury them.. .
“Trump has fallen into the swamp and can’t get up. Or perhaps he was dragged in feet first against his will.”
There are reports that Trump’s son-in-law, the one down the hall, has a line of credit of $250+ million from György Schwartz (aka George Soros), against his properties in Manhattan.
Was Trump, and/or his immediate family, already swimming in the swamp?
From Elizabeth Warren on Obama’s upcoming $400,000 speaking fee: “I was troubled by that…the influence of money – I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington.”
Maybe we are all swampsters …
You are correct. Your generation has been the beneficiary of wonderful growth, fantastic increases in living standards, higher life expectancies, global travel and trade, and amazing technological advances. Unfortunately, you have borrowed to live beyond your means (businesses, individuals, governments).
However, you have not doomed your children and grandchildren. They will still enjoy a pretty good life, provided they get the education and skills needed. The US and global economies still have slow growth ahead of them (the levels of debt prevent faster growth). Just as long as your boy Trump doesn’t do something incredibly stupid.
In the meantime, go try and make the world a better place yourself, through one kind act after another. And stop whining.
No, sadly they won’t. I told my sons long ago that they will live to see the end of the US as we know it today. Republics can never last forever because they will eventually destroy themselves by spending themselves to death. While the USD remains the world reserve currency, the US can continue, but that status won’t last forever, and then debt, and balancing the budget will matter.
Do your sons a favor and explain to them that hard work, education, and acquiring the right skills will help prepare them for the future. You are all living in the USA, the land of opportunity. If immigrants can move to the US with nothing, start companies and become billionaires, why can’t your sons? Maybe it’s because their parents encourage them to succeed rather than bring them down with doom and gloom. I don’t live in the US, but I am fortunate to live in a wonderful country as well. I far exceeded my parents success. Two of my children have already far exceeded by own success (at the same point in their lives) and the other two are just getting started. My grandchildren are being raised the same way I raised my children. That the future is theirs for the taking, provided that they are willing to work and learn.
When did Americans become such pessimists?
When it ceased being America.
I did not encourage them to give up. To the contrary, I urged them to not consider the “safety net” as a reliable future. They will have to succeed on their own. Social security will not be there for them, and at some point other social welfare programs will dry up as well. If they want to succeed, they need to forge their own success, not rely on the illusory security of a social welfare system that in the end will collapse.
It’s not my problem if you can deal with reality and the truth, Realist (how ironic is that moniker? ha.)
You must live in some sort of bubble. The average kid is living with mom and dad into his or her late 20’s because they can’t make ends meet. Try to capture the American dream when you graduate at 22 with a $50,000 student loan debt hanging over your head. Maybe you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Most of us weren’t.
Today it is 3x’s more difficult to find a decent job with a living wage and to pay the bills than it was when I was a youngster.
Kids today are going to be eating from hand to mouth for many years. Debt slaves. And next time the economy crashes the homeless population is going to explode. When interest rate involuntarily rise the government won’t even be able to service the interest payments on the incredible amount of debt the pols have run up in the last 10 years.
You live in la-la land, Realist. I would suggest you change your moniker to ‘blah blah blah’.
I do live in a wonderful country, where there is opportunity for those willing to work hard. I have travelled extensively in the US and have not seen the doom and gloom that you portray. But, I will admit to not having travelled everywhere in your country, and I will have to assume that things have gotten worse, based on the comments you have made.
But, what is the solution? Certainly it isn’t to give up! Since an individual cannot change the entire world around them, all they can do is change themselves through hard work and education to prepare themselves for the future.
Remember, there are many people throughout the world, living in countries with limited opportunities, who would love to emigrate to the US, where they would have more opportunity.
Corruption in government reaches a new pinnacle every day. Always has, always will. In every government ever, past and future.
In any hierarchical organization larger than one in which “everyone knows everything about everyone else” (per anthropologists, somewhere between 80-250 members), those who reach the most coveted positions at the top, are the ones with the fewest scruples about doing whatever it takes to climb to the top. It is literally impossible to construct an organization in which this is not true. The guy in charge will always, everywhere, be a scumbag. And not just a garden variety scumbag, but the single most unscrupulous of all the scumbags. If he wasn’t, someone even scummier would have beaten him in the race up the ladder.
The only checks on this inevitable universal scummyfcation effect, are external ones. Once Rome’s rulers became too bad, they got sacked from the outside. Once a corporate CEO becomes to horribly concerned about patting himself on the back, talent leaves, and competitors take over.
In governments, particularly large ones, external pressures are much lower. It wasn’t always thus: As long as America had an open frontier, people could just up and leave. Ditto for as long as states were much more sovereign. But now, leaving, as all the guys who, despite what they said, would leave for Canada if Trump or Bush got elected demonstrate, is really hard. So people are captive chattel. Stuck in dump that is linebreeding it’s leadership castes for scummyness like no regime in history ever has.
The US Founders attempted to put in place hard limits on what government could do, to arrest this inevitable slide. But alas, those bulwarks only looked to work, for as long as they were supported by the open frontier. Once that closed, it was back to totalitarian partytime, no different than in the feudal Europe Americans had once left behind.
For now, it looks like the only “document” with any success at all at restricting complete arbitrary rule by the hyper scumbags of our era, is Sharia. Which goes a long way towards explaining it’s attraction, as more and more people around the world wake up and get fed up with the scum that claim, by reference to one harebrained construct or another, to be their somehow “legitimate” rulers.
Yes, government has always been corrupt; so have businesses and individuals. Yet human desire and ingenuity have helped to raise living standards consistently over time. It isn’t any different today. I agree that growth of 3%+ is going to be hard to achieve, but 1-2% is what we should be able to accomplish. Even in the US.
i´m afraid you are right. And read Mish´s post that 50% of americans don´t count anymore.
I´m afraid the only way out is a revolution both in america and europe.
Read the history book folks.
27 egos?
only one ego matters in europe – the german ego.
does anyone really think the other 26 won’t go along with whatever DE decides? c’mon… let’s not pretend that the EU is anything but DE+26 vassal states.
the DE+26 dynamic is the single biggest reason the EU is failing. nationalism is a rational response to the neo-feudal yoke.
Theresa May & the UK hold ALL of the cards… worst-case scenario, the UK goes about it’s business… signs new treaties & deals all over the world, and simply waits for the inevitable collapse of europe.
Juncker is so arrogant, it’s laughable. The man is a lush & holds zero credibility outside of Brussels & sycophantic media bubble. Much larger forces are at work in the world – individual egos & ridiculous quotes are utterly insignificant.
Germany matters because they have the only functioning economy in Europe (for now). Keeping their clout requires them to keep their economy. Keeping their economy requires Germany to maintain trade with Russia (Germany needs energy), and it requires them to maintain trade with England (Germany’s economy needs PAYING customers, not IOUs / Draghi-bucks).
Merkel will throw a temper tantrum, but in the end the German economy must continue trade with England. German unions want to protect jobs, German industry wants to protect capital, German politicians know they need a functioning economy to stay in office. Merkel will probably get re-elected (the least stinky shirt in the laundry?), but she is politically very weak.
Juncker is a drunk, and he’ll have another brandy
I hope May’s gamble of fresh elections pays off handsomely. It will strengthen her hands and show the EU where they stand.
EU;
goodbye England
hello Scotland, Wales, and Ulster
that’s a lot of leverage
???
Scotland may indeed attempt to re-join the EU, but they’ll need two successful referendums to do so… and in the process, the Scots will reveal themselves to be a nation of welfare seekers – perhaps this isn’t the reputation that Scots want to be saddled with?
No way in hell that Wales or Ulster leave the UK to join the EU. No way in hell.
Actually, it is far less that 27 egos if the counting is to be done. Italy is on the brink of leaving with the five star movement gaining power. The Finns and the Danes aren’t likely to back Germany. Austria wants to leave but has problems with getting a majority of residents to commit. The Czech Republic is no friend of the EU as is Hungary. And Spain still does not have a government per se. By the end of the day on May 14 we will know where France stands. When one’s universe is a bottle it is easy to understand why others are living in a different universe. Bottom line is that the UK will not pay and will not take any more refugees.
It is Germany + 26.
Germany calls all the shots, the paymaster always does in the EU.
Money talks, and not just in the EU.
Germany’s money/power comes from an export based economy, so Germany will continue trading with England and Russia whether Brussels likes it or not.
Don’t be so sure that all of the “26” will snap to attention at the bark of the German will. Germany isn’t the “paymaster”, only the main lender. When you owe the bank a hundred dollars that’s your problem, when you owe them a billion or so, that is there problem. As long as the dead beats believe the debt to the Germans is their problem Germany may be able to run the show. But when they figure out that their debt is a big club, then Germany has a huge problem. So far, Poland and Hungry have decided that they don’t need the “paymaster’s” say in how to handle the refugee problem. I suspect other countries will tell the Germans to keep their opinions to themselves on that matter. What’s Germany going to do, stop lending the money to buy their exports? I seem to remember that the equipment providers at the height of the telecom boom were in a similar situation. Any guess as to what happened?
Merkel wants the refugees because Brussels told her so. Merkel doesn’t speak for Germany, she speaks for a government that is in power because no one intelligent wants to clean up her mess.
Germans do not want the middle eastern refugees — that is Brussels talking.
German companies have made very clear that they want to open plants in Poland / Hungary, combining German machinery with eastern European labor. German labor understands the advantages of working with eastern Europe, provided the impact on German laborers is minimized (which is very feasible).
Do not confuse what Merkel wants at Brussels behest, with what Germans want
I don’t confuse what Merkel wants with a majority of Germans. The refugee situation is starting to blow up in her face as it is in a few other countries. What happens if France come may 14 will help to determine the outcome in Brussels. Poland says no to refugees, Czech Republic wants no part of them now and is even loosing gun laws to let the people arm themselves. That is not an EU “value” by the way. We are seeing more EU countries out of lockstep with Brussels. The Euro does not have long to live and election of Ms Le Pen will hasten its demise. Italy may be next as the five star movement has made sufficient inroads to cause a power shift towards EU independence. Even Greece may see the light and leave the EU, repudiating its debt along the way. That would leave German banks exposed. Frankly, I think Greece would be wise to leave the EU and send those refugees back to Turkey or the mid east or north Africa. I’m sure President Trump would lend them a few old WWII LSTs to do that. Just herd them in and land on a beach some where and herd them off. Very simple and who would stop them? It would take a few trips but it would be a cheap solution.
May is right there is no legal redress for the £50Bn and after the 2 years areas such as fishing rights return to the UK.
Article 50 isn’t fit for purpose but too late for the EU to change it. Thanks Amato for that mess. He thinks he’s a genius. Go figure.
It’s a lose-lose unless sense prevails to make it a win-win.
The EU just cannot allow a win-win, it must be win-lose with the advantage to the EU. Instant conflict. Dumb.
We march towards a cliff edge.
Very telling that everything has to be run past Mamma Merkel.
Merkel’s claim to power is hanging on a tenuous thread to put it nicely. She might or might not win re-election; even though she is currently “the favorite”, its not by a wide margin and even her supporters admit she is the least stinky shirt in the laundry.
When Merkel gets replaced (this election? next election?) the EU loses its monetary support and its all over for Brussels. Hollande knows this, so does Macron. And drunk as he may be, some helpful eurocrat wrote a reminder on Juncker’s brandy bottle that Merkel is all that is standing between Juncker and unemployment. Drunks don’t like being unemployed, makes it difficult to afford high end hootch.
Germany will continue trading with England, with or without Brussels permission… because Germany has an export based economy and England is able to pay its bills.
Merkel will protect the German export economy like her status depends on it… because it does.
the EU and the UK cannot and wil not agree on a way forward, there simply isn’t the ability or the capability within either sides legal and political structures to come up with a practical agreement within two years.
the UK needs to arrange for (much cheaper without EU tariffs) imports of goods from non-EU countries and exports of goods to non-EU countries as soon as the UK election is over.
Remember, the UK chose to strategically position its economy towards the EU and drop all other trade relationships back in 1973 under Edward Heath. This has proven to be a strategic error as it is apparent that the other side of this strategic move is to run up a mountain of goverment debt to its EU partners, in exchange for trade deficits.
A new Britain needs to show the way by running fiscal and trade surpluses to repay the odious debt foisted on it by the morally bankrupt libtard sociaist EU construct and pray that the EU and the ECB are restructured to disallow out of controlnon-EU migrants from places like MENA and Turkey – untl these can be catered and paid for.
There is some friction about low/no-skilled EU migrants, none at all about talented EU migrants, there is a bunch of friction about non-EU migrants. It is this Merkel policy that is sinking Europe and turned the UK completely off the EU (Merkel unilaterally decided EU policy on non-EU migrants and revealed a gaping hole in the Schengen Treaty).
The CETA between the EU and Canada began on 6 May 2009 and took 8 years of bullshit, free lunches, dinners, summits and other trough feeding by fat a/holes in both places http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_PRES-09-120_en.htm
8 years of trough feeding for an agreement between two consenting and willing parties – it should be clear by now that neither the EU nor the UK are willing or consenting adults and that the EU’s position (well the EU Commission and the current crop of failed/failing EU leaders) is to obstruct, punish and delay the UK, until it gives up trying to even sit down with the EU.
The UK should show the middle finger to the EU and enter talks with the planet’s other 160 countries representing the other 7 billion people not in the EU – it needs to do that now. (By the way, I would be starting to open smuggling channels via the same routes taken by the millions of non-EU migrants and pay them to do it, since the EU is incapable of controlling migrant flows – paying non-EU migrants would at least give them a job and a start in the EU).
“… that the EU’s position … is to obstruct, punish and delay the UK, until it gives up trying to even sit down with the EU”
No doubt Juncker and his political minions will try this tactic, but Mercedes risks losing its largest export market, and both France and Germany risk losing something like a 60 billion per year trade surplus with the UK. Cooler heads (in Europe) will prevail.
A rational person would agree with you. However, Mercedes does not even make most of the parts that are assembled in the Mercedes plants scattered across the globe. Although Mercedes-Benz is still headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, there are numerous plants in approximately 22 countries, including the U.S., Austria, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. The parts from Mercedes are actually ONLY ASSEMBLED at these plants but the parts (from windscreen wipers to wheel nuts to pistons) made mostly in Asia. Not in Germany. This is the current hypocrictical position of the EU/Germany – for example, calling Mercedes a German company – and is an example of the ompossibility of completing value chain negotiations at the lowest level between the EU and the UK. There isn’t enough time for anything but emotional (not rational) generalized negotiations that will, in any case, be spurious and cosmetic.
It is this “scratching the surface” that has kept the EU bureaucrats well fed for decades. There are many surfaces for them to regulate and which are too complex for accountability of any sort.
It is small wonder that EU tax avoidance is so easy and desirable. EU manufacturers simply move plants outside the EU, thus creating unemployment in the EU. But that is another story. Companies are being rational by siting plant away from the EU (and the US/UK/Japan) into low tax and/or low wage countries, thus beggaring the EU and uplifting the (emerging) low tax/wage country.
“Controlling migrant flows” …. even the migrants who are ‘distributed’ as part of the EU quota scheme refuse to follow, they simply dissapear from the country they are taken to and reappear elsewhere in EU, with the country that hosted them as quota having to pay for their return to their supposed residence. I had to read this story twice to be convinced I understood it right the first time, and I would laugh except the people behind these bureaucratic games revile me.
http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/number-of-refugees-abandoning-portugal-doubles-in-two-months/41767
Maybe they are trying to get away from the Brazilians coming in before the violence that always follows Brazilians starts. Aleppo is like a safe haven compared to Rio.
http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/portugal-becoming-the-new-florida-for-wealthy-brazilians/41770
Yes, I had read that previously. I have a Spanish friend who started a small business in Brasil before the world cup, decent outgoing person and strong character too, very down to earth…basically described the country as becoming impossible, his wife from there described how the country had changed over time. There is a fair amount of upper class migration going on from other Latin countries also to Spain, very confused picture as many returned to S.America post gfc, while large numbers were also granted Spanish nationality on hereditary basis pre-gfc. Both Spain and Portugal are heavily invested there, could knock their finance off the perch, plus some recent corruption cases are related to this sphere, the Spanish government is under a lot of pressure…could blow…had the rcc supporting Catalan secession even.
But Portugal is OK, for now at least. Nothing much going on, not maintained the country since gfc, but not as cooked as Spain is, still more local feeling, and not as tightly wound wrt nationalism/foreigners… generally more sensible people and the slowdown is probably a blessing in disguise. There now… outside of EU they are still in a good position to slowly turn the country into a low scale high quality setting.
I call Portugal “the land that time forgot.” I like it though…laid back ,,, good food,,, and a surprising amount of pretty girls.
A nce way of phrasing it , saudade is very part of the nature of the people.
Jefferson Davis: been there done that.
“I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.”
“All we ask is to be let alone.”
——–
PM May is correct. The UK can simply walk away from this any time they wish – but she will go through the motions of Article 50 in good faith before doing so. The advantage is hers.
Are we so naive not to believe that, with sufficient military capacity, Juncker would lead the EU in an attack against the UK? Brussels is already using forceful measures, any and all available forms thereof, to preserve their power – as witnessed in Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.
However, Britain is a major contributor to NATO, an organization that supersedes the EU; thus ensuring the UK’s successful political departure from Europe – as PM May well knows. In a sense, NATO will ensure that Britain remains a part of Europe anyway, from a military and defence perspective.
In any case, the next two years will be entertaining, as Junker’s bellicose and no doubt Baghdad Bob-ish reactions unfold.
scorland, wales, and ulster
empty “threat”.
nobody is worried about Wales or Ulster leaving the UK… it’ll never happen.
Scotland looks like a street prostitute – selling themselves to the flashiest pimp…quite the reputation the Scots are developing there.
English need a vote on the Union too. Many would vote to go solo and leave Scotland to its own devices.
Lincoln, like Davis, was hoping to avoid war. To leave laws alone in (then) current states, and not allow slavery in new states… slavery would have died out on its own like it did in Europe (and was slowly dying in the US too). The south’s economy could have adjusted gradually and there wouldn’t have been the bloodshed.
Unfortunately for both Davis and Lincoln, some folks in Charleston (Ft Sumpter) weren’t going to let patience happen.
In present day, the EU bureaucrats and drunks simply won’t allow Europeans to be themselves. Eurocrats think they know better than everyone else, and they want to force all of Europe to submit.
England was just the first (of many) to tell Brussels to mind their own business and leave England be. France, Italy and Spain will be next… unless Germany finds a less stinky shirt than Merkel.
Jean-Claude Juncker is a drunk. People from our galaxy would be dead if we registered blood alchohol content as high as Junkcker’s.
The Eurocrats and Merkel can pretend to hold the high ground; however, the reality is that without the UK the EU is doomed. The peacocks in Brussels are realising this. Even the favourite to win the French election realises it. Germany and France cannot hold the EU and the Eurozone together. The French economy is a basket case and has been for a generation. The only hope for Europe is to ditch Brussels and to replace it with a tax free zone along the lines of ASEAN with minimal bureaucracy and of course no Brussels.
Partial Greek deal announced today.
Another one?
Let me guess: The Greek contagion has been solved once and for all… again! 🙂
Partial – the Greek government, Brussels, the ECB and the IMF took part, the citizens of Greece and the rest of Europe didn’t.
LOL!
He got that right. He just doesn’t understand why.
Mish is right. Theresa May should simply implement Article 50 immediately. The disruption to European and British industry would be enormous. Powerful corporations and banks will instruct their governments to make no immediate changes in order to minimize damage to sales and profits. With German and French sales on the line, negotiations can begin in earnest. This gives the UK the strongest hand.
Oh, and they owe 60 billion? Pay it in newly printed pounds. The EU can exchange them for British imports.
Completely off-topic, but wanted to rub Mish’s nose in staying in Illinois.
The Florida House and Senate just passed a ballot initiative for the 2018 elections that will amend the constitution to add a third $25,000 homestead exemption. A homestead, in Florida, means your primary residence (of which you are allowed one).
What does that mean to me? My property taxes will be calculated at the value of the house minus $75,000. I purchased my house in 2001 for $139,000 (a standard 2000 sq. flt. 3/2 on a quarter acre lot). Florida has a law that does not allow the assessed value of a homestead to increase faster than 3% or the rate of inflation. And the local property appraiser can legally assess the value at 80% of that (and they all do for political reasons).
So my current assessed value is $95,720. Figure that will go up by 2% next year and it becomes $97,634.40. Subtract $75,000 and that leaves $22,634.40 of taxable value.
Multiply the $22,634.40 by a rough aggregate millage (city, county, school board, special districts) of 22.85 (.02285 multiplier) and my total property taxes will be $517.20.
So $517.20 will be 100% of my annual local property taxes. Of course in Florida, I also have to pay 6% sales tax (and I try to buy nothing if possible). And we have no income taxes.
“What matters is the EU, not the UK, has imposed an impossible starting point that the UK cannot possibly accept.”
Reminds me of the era of the Treaty of Versailles. It didn’t work out well to punish Germany so harshly after WW1.
Not only that but Article 50 was never fit for purpose, written by the EU.