Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Bill Mitchell — Britain doesn’t appear to be collapsing as a result of Brexit

Do you remember back to May 2016, when the British Treasury, which is clearly full of mainstream macroeconomists who have little understanding of how the system actually operates released their ‘Brexit’ predictions? The ‘study’ (putting the best spin possible on what was a tawdry piece of propaganda) – HM Treasury analysis: the immediate economic impact of leaving the EU – was strategically released to have maximum impact on the vote, which would come just a month later. Fortunately, for Britain and its people, the attempt to provide misinformation failed. As time passes, while the British government and the EU dilly-dally about the ‘divorce’ details, we are getting a better picture of what is happening post-Brexit as the ‘market’ sorts what it can sort out. Much has been said about the destructive shifts in trade that will follow Brexit. But these scaremongers fail to grasp that Britain has been moving away from trade with the EU for some years now and that process will continue into the future. I come from a nation that was dealt a major trading shock at the other end of Britain’s ill-fated dalliance with Europe. It also made alternative plans and prospered as a result. The outcomes of Brexit will be in the hands of the domestic policies that follow. Stick to neoliberalism and there will be a disaster. But the opportunity is there for British Labour to recast itself and seize the scope for better public infrastructure, better services and stronger domestic demand. Then the nation will see why leaving the corporatist, austerity-biased failure that the EU has become was a stroke of genius....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Britain doesn’t appear to be collapsing as a result of Brexit
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

1 comment:

Andy Blatchford said...

I did start a comment on that piece but it was getting way to long so I am going to use my medium account instead.
In particular the mention of the 'Rotterdam Effect' briefly exports via Rotterdam do not get counted in Dutch trade figures.

There is a bit of a boom in exports but imports are as busy. London Heathrow Cargo is in a bit of mess but so are major hub airports all over the world, trade is humming along currently, rates are at levels I have never seen (not so much by sea but that is suffering huge over capacity) some air rates are around 500% compared to usual.

https://theloadstar.co.uk/christmas-bonus-carriers-demand-air-cargo-capacity-goes-crazy/
Even that is out way of date there is no belly hold space to had until after Christmas.