Britain will finally be actually leaving the EU common market at the end of this year. Negotiation for a trade deal has stalled so it may be a “hard Brexit”.
In March “The clock was ticking towards Brexit” and British Ports were worried that they could not be ready to handle it in time:
Nearing the finish line and then dropping a bombshell on the negotiations. It was to be expected with this cowboy Johnson.
Hilarious. Especially this part
EU diplomats were aghast, cautioning that such a step, leaked on the eve of new talks in London, would tarnish Britain’s global prestige and heighten chances of a tumultuous final disentangling from the bloc on Dec. 31.
What global prestige? They gave that up back during Thatchers time and it has been steadily decreasing. Apparently Britain’s citizens think they will be better off without the EU. They voted for it. Let them give it a try. 
As the saying goes the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I am curious how this will work out. The majority of the young Brits didnot vote what may have tipped the scales in favor of Brexit. They regret that now because there is no more free travel to the European mainland countries. The old generation made the decision…
Wishing for a return to the way things used to be which is ludicrous. Time and civilizations march on inexorably.
This is ‘young’ nonsense.
In my young years 50/60 years ago, I travelled free through (then) Western Europe, without a visa or other problems; long before anyone thought about a coming European Union.
To convince the common German people, reluctant to give up their ‘hard’ Deutsche Mark, politicians repeated endlessly ‘You will never again need to change currencies for your vacancies’… and that worked.
The UK never had this ‘problem’; they never changed to the Euro (like other Union members).
It is no only about free travel but also about for instance jobs.
On 23 June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU by 51.9% to 48.1%. We hear a lot about how “young people want to stay in the EU,” and some do, but the truth is that not everyone eligible to vote showed up on the day in 2016. While 90% of over-65s turned out, only about 64% of 18-24 year-olds voted (and, of course, not all of those voted Remain).
Oh yeah, just like the “peace dividend” American taxpayers got when the Cold War ended. Or, to keep on target, just like the average Brit got from the North Sea oilfields.
the single currency worked for the large EU countries and bankrupted the small ones which any economics student could have worked out before they did it.
Its a social experiment covering the underlining problem that some EU countries would be bankrupt and defaulting on debt by now but the eu delayed that by printing cash on a massive scale and hence handcuffing the young for ever under a mountain of debt and zero growth.
It is not Big vs. Small, it is more the old industrialized countries vs. the other ones.
The lurking problems are Italy and then France. With (West-) Germany, the three have all about 60 million inhabitants.
Germany did well, the other two not, they are dysfunctional countries.
Italy has a productive industrial North and a whole South living of subventions.
France has a ‘cities vs. country side’ problem with a state organized industrialization (few privately grown). The large cities are not productive and live of transfers.
The Italian Lire and the French Franc had a long history of devaluations to stay internationally competitive (the debts were mainly inland financed). This is not possible anymore, with the Euro.
The rich economies could easily save the small bankrupt ones, like Cyprus or Greece.
With the large Italy and France, this will not be possible.
How to explain it in simple terms?
Lets put it like this, many of you don’t much care for the sainted Donald. No lets be honest, some of you hate his guts, buts that’s OK. Because in a couple of months he faces you at the ballot box. You can get rid of him.
Here in Europe, we are stuck with Ursula Von de Lyden. She cannot be voted out of office by the people of Europe.
ah no, the big versus small is the issue unless the 2 way trade is the same value it cannot work.
The small country cant afford to buy the everything it wants to from the large supplier so the large supplier gives it credit and then the problem begins.
Traditional economy you could tax the capital drain or raise interest rate to attract capital or devalue to stop it.
Neither country can alter interest rate and currency rate so the small one is trapped.
There is a very good reason why OZ and NZ with a free trade agreement will never peg or issue the same currency as being way smaller it would be the death of NZ
no, they issued money to fund the German and French banks who loaned the money to greece after the EU put them in the debt trap.
Greece was never bailed out only the northern europe banks,
Greece, like other European nations, had faced debt crises in the 19th century, as well as a similar crisis in 1932 during the Great Depression. In general, however, during the 20th century it enjoyed one of the highest GDP growth rates in the world[26] (for a quarter century – early 1950s to mid 1970s – second in the world after Japan). Average Greek government debt-to-GDP for the entire century before the crisis (1909–2008) was lower than that for the UK, Canada or France[23][25]
if you understand what happened to Greece you will see how corrupt and hopeless the EU is
love him or loath him most people like what he does and what he stands for.
Our President has been nominated for Nobel Peace award by member of Norwegian parliament.
Trump was nominated by Norwegian Parliament member Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who also serves as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Tybring-Gjedde cited the president’s role in brokering a landmark normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during an interview on Fox News Wednesday morning.
“For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Tybring-Gjedde said, referring to Trump.
Weird definition of “most”, but whatever floats your boat. Or sinks it on a lake in Texas, as the case may be.
Christian Tybring-Gjedde is " Described by most political scientists and international commentators as far-right, anti-immigration and Islamophobic."
Who are these “lot of people” ? Quantify and give attribution please.
You can call it what you like…
Mainly the French banks lent money to Greece, not for humanitarian reasons !
In the European financial system, they could deposit these loans in the European (Euro) Central Bank, where it was accepted as absolutely secure investments, accountable as own capital in the prescribed risk reserves. Finally, the State protected French banks could go bust !
The French government had something to say in the following salvage discussions…
The thing about Nobel prizes is that they aren’t awarded by a government, or by popular acclaim. They are awarded by a private foundation, endowed from Alfred Nobel’s fortune. The foundation is run by distinguished Swedes and Norwegians, and they give the five prizes based on the rules in Nobel’s will. Here is a portion:
The interest [of Nobel’s fortune] is to be divided into five equal parts…[with] one part to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses…
So, I can see someone saying POTUS45 should get it for the last clause, but others saying, Hey, wait a minute, look at the first clause…