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 wort 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 the 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.
The first step in training EU mules is to hit them in the
head as hard as you can with a stick. Osborne just smacked French and German
mules
— Mike Shedlock (@MishGEA) July 11, 2016
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
#eu
Sweden is pissing and moaning along with Germany and France about UK tax
rates. I call this progress. Advantage UK in Negotiations.
— Mike Shedlock (@MishGEA) August 21, 2016
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