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 â 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.