OT: UK Separating From EU?

Brexit: What Is It About?
By Paul Craig Roberts

June 22, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - If you read the presstitute media, Brexit—the referendum tomorrow on the UK’s exit from the EU— is about racism. According to the story line, angry rightwing racists of violent inclinations want to leave the EU to avoid having to accept more dark-skinned immigrants into England.

Despite the constant propaganda against exit, polls indicated that more favored leaving the EU than remaining until a female member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was killed by a man that a witness said shouted “Brexit.” Cox was an opponent of leaving the EU.

The UK government and presstitute media used Cox’s murder to drive home the propaganda that violent racists were behind Brexit. However, other witnesses gave a different report. The Guardian, which led with the propaganda line, did report later in its account that “Other witnesses said the attack was launched after the MP became involved in an altercation involving two men near where she held her weekly surgery.” Of course, we will never know, because Cox’s murder is too valuable of a weapon against Brexit.

There is no doubt that many in the UK are disturbed at the transformation of their country. One doesn’t have to be a racist to feel that one’s country is being stolen from them by people of alien cultures. The British have a long history of fighting off invaders, and many believe they are experiencing an invasion, although not an armed one. An armed one, of course, would not have the government’s and media’s support.

When British people hear pundits pronounce that immigrants contribute more to the UK than they absorb in social payments, what they hear is inconsistent with their experience. Moreover,
many British are tired of having to avoid entire sections of their cities, including London, because of safety concerns.

It is a propaganda choice to call these concerns racism rather than cultural defense, and the UK political establishment has made that propaganda choice. Little wonder so many British citizens no longer believe that the British Establishment represents Britain.

But let’s give the propagandists the benefit of the doubt and for sake of argument assume that Brexit is about racism. What is the opposition to Brexit really about? Most certainly it is not about helping the refugees from Washington’s wars that the UK government has enabled. If the British establishment cared so much for the Muslims seeking refuge from America’s invasions, bombs, and drones, the British establishment would not have supported Washington’s attacks on these people.

Opposition to Brexit is based on two powerful interests of Washington.

One is the interests of the New York banks and Wall Street to eliminate the UK as a financial center competitor. This blatant fact has escaped the notice of the City and the Bank of England.

The British have forgotten that they only have one foot in the EU, because the UK was permitted to keep its own currency. The UK does not use the euro and, thus, retains the power to finance the British government. Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, etc., do not have this capability. They are dependent on private banks for financing.

In order to trick the UK into joining the EU, the British were given special privileges. However, these privileges cannot last forever. The EU process is one of political integration. As I reported years ago, Jean-Claude Trichet, at that time the president of the European Central Bank, said that to complete the political integration of Europe, the fiscal policies of member states would be centralized. It is impossible to centralize fiscal policies if the UK is an independent financial center with its own central bank and currency.

Wall Street understands that the defeat of Brexit means a shortened lifespan for London as a financial center, as it is impossible to be a financial center unless a country has its own currency and central bank. As it is impossible for the UK to be a member of the EU and not operate under the European Central Bank, once the Brexit referendum is defeated, the process of gradually forcing the UK into the euro will begin.

The other powerful interest is the interest of Washington to prevent one country’s exit from leading to the exit of other countries. As CIA documents found in the US National Archives make clear, the EU was a CIA initiative, the purpose of which is to make it easy for Washington to exercise political control over Europe. It is much easier for Washington to control the EU than 28 separate countries. Moreover, if the EU unravels, so likely would NATO, which is the necessary cover for Washington’s aggression.

The EU serves Washington and the One Percent. It serves no one else. The EU is a murderer of sovereignty and peoples. The intent is for the British, French, Germans, Italians, Greeks, Spanish, and all the rest to disappear as peoples. Brexit is the last chance to defeat this hidden agenda, and apparently the British will vote tomorrow without having a clue as to what is at stake and what the vote is about.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following.

My bad, I guess they stay open til 2200. Crikey, they gotta make a
career of voting?

It would be a bit awkward to move next to a neighbor who voted to get away from you.

Reminds me of the Quebec referendums in 1980 and ........

There will blood running everywhere when the LSE and then NYSE open on Friday.

Yes but the UK has their own independent bank for their money and can manipulate their treasure according to their own self interest and not what the laziest players on the team want.

my bet is scotland will leave the uk within 5 yrs

Jun 23, 2016 - 09:56pm PT
Lorenzo, thats pretty funny that trumps trying to spin that. He's absolutely hated over there.

UK votes to LEAVE the EU

COUNT
Leave has 51.7% of votes counted so far

LATEST
BBC forecast: UK votes to LEAVE the EU

FORECAST
Predicted result: Leave 52%, Remain 48%

LATEST
Pound drops to lowest levels sinc

I just want to let everyone know that Trump was in favor of the UK leaving the EU before the vote.

No he was right. He knew the tide and feeling of the people. The people voted to leave. It will hurt for a moment. But it will be better.

It does have some chance of being better. If the EU implodes because of debt problems of Greece or Spain (or perhaps Italy) the UK exit could be a smart move. If not, the economic costs to the UK could be substantial.

they'll come begging

TEXIT coming next

And the pound's drop in value is not a disaster. It makes their goods
much more competitive. I'll prolly spend more when I'm there in a few
weeks.

A British vote to leave the European Union sent sterling plunging on Friday and hammered equities across the world as turmoil swept through global markets.

Such a body blow to global confidence could well prevent the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates as planned this year, and might even provoke a new round of emergency policy easing from all the major central banks.

Risk assets were scorched as investors fled to the traditional safe-harbors of top-rated government debt, Japanese yen and gold.

Billions were wiped from share values as FTSE futures fell 7 percent FFIc1, EMINI S&P 500 futures ESc1 5 percent and Japan's Nikkei .N225 7.6 percent. European stock markets were set to open more than 10 percent lower STXEc1.

The British pound collapsed no less than 18 U.S. cents, easily the biggest fall in living memory, to hit its lowest since 1985. The euro in turn slid 3.2 percent to $1.1012 EUR= as investors feared for its very future………

RECESSION FEARS
Europe's natural safety play, the 10-year German government bond, surged to send its yields tumbling back into negative territory and a new record low. [EUR/GVD]…………

The rally did not extend to UK bonds, however, as ratings agency Standard and Poor's has warned it would likely downgrade the country's triple A rating if it left the EU…………..

"It adds weight to the camp that the Fed would be on hold. A July (hike) is definitely off the table," Mike Baele, managing director with the private client reserve group at U.S. Bank in Portland, Oregon.

Fed funds futures were even toying with the chance that the next move could be a cut in U.S. rates………

Many see this as an omen that reads... President Trump.

The UK seems better off now than it was when I was a kid living there in the 70s and 80s. I'm not sure about what they are hoping to return to??

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told CNBC on Friday the U.K. vote to leave the European Union ushers in a period that's even worse than the darkest days of October 1987.

Britons voted by 51.9 percent to quit the 28-country union, shocking markets that had priced in a win for the remain camp.

"This is the worst period, I recall since I've been in public service," Greenspan said on "Squawk on the Street."

"There's nothing like it, including the crisis — remember October 19th, 1987, when the Dow went down by a record amount 23 percent? That I thought was the bottom of all potential problems. This has a corrosive effect that will not go away."

The former Fed chairman said that the root of the "British problem is far more widespread." He said the result of the referendum will "almost surely" lead to the Scottish National Party trying to "resurrect Scottish Independence."

Greenspan said the "euro currency is the immediate problem." While the euro and the euro zone were major steps in a movement toward European political integration, "it's failing," he said.

"Brexit is not the end of the set of problems, which I always thought were going to start with the euro because the euro is a very serious problem in that the southern part of the euro zone is being funded by the northern part and the European Central Bank," Greenspan said.

Greenspan said.

Wilson, where are you going?

You idiot. Get back in there at once

and sell, sell.

Trump cheering on this madness just pushes him farther back in the presidential race.

An old Brit friend said " ... for the first time since 1979 working class people whose industries have disappeared in the interim had the chance to be heard - and they took it."

If you toss the Scots' votes England voted strongly for leaving:

those jobs aren't coming back.

its worth noting your brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 or so

The Supreme Court shoots down Obama's illegal immigrant protection bill (he wants to turn the USA into a welfare state) and then he tries to tell the UK what to do on the Brexit vote. How dare he tell them what to do. They gave the EU the boot. Then they gave Obama the boot. Obama and Hillary are completely disconnected from what is right and what the people want.

Is he outta office yet?

Make America Great Again

Fast way to do taxes.

wonder how they will sort out the border and citizenship issues. I'm sure large numbers of people who are EU but not UK citizens have--quite legally--completely built their entire lives in England.

Hey pyro, drumpf is vague and ambiguous because he doesn't have a clue how to " make America great again".

Jun 25, 2016 - 10:38am PT
^^^^. Not to mention the House UnAmerican Activites Committee (HUAC)

That is a good question Pyro, great to have you jumping in to have a discussion on issues rather than just hollering about ideology

i am urging acceleration to put an electoral stake through their metaphorical hearts by seizing the rare opportunity that such a complete moron such as trump presents -the change to get a bunch of repubs on side to save capitalism from itself to address the legitimate grievances of hard-working honest people who to some extent have been disenfranchised by a game that favors guys like trump who rip off the working person and now purport to have their interests at heart. The chutzpah of the chump!

People don't vote by evidence they research but how they think the vote will affect their pocketbook. People vote with emotion, not evidence.

The GBP, just dropped like a rock.

That "Great America" still enacted Jim Crow laws, seriously discriminated against women, LGBT persons had zero rights, Asian Americans did not have the right to vote.....

Yeah. Great if you were a white male.

Bluey -how goes sober living -legit question btw and from a good place.

Now, to the issue at hand; imho the uk more or less had control of their future, yeah they paid some money to brussels, but they had their currency, fiscal policies and immigration controls more or less intact.

That said I see breexit and the rise of your buffon trump as more a revolt against poorly negotiated trade deals -i am internationalist by nature as are you by virtue of your schooling, and i have to say that the deals cut with china coming into broad trade frameworks with no clauses around state subsidies and no tariff structuring around meeting equiv usa enviro standards were bullshit then and now we all pay the price. This is far too complex for trump imho as his other noise gets in the way of a central truth -but on that one I would support renegotiating for a bunch of reasons we can agree on -preserving knowledge based jobs and one your crew doesn't seem to give a f*#k about -global warming.

And who are "people like me" Bluering?

Know your history or you are doomed to repeat it.

And don't give me the left-right paradigm in America. Your two parties are the same thing ; hand in hand with the corporatocracy, the military industrial complex and trickle-up globalism.

The facts that Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator, is publicly elated with the result of the referendum, and that the Chinese elite is privately pleased, speak for themselves. Divide and conquer.

Wow. Just wow.

Good luck with your future Steve.

Anyhoo -turning to the trade issue; I think we have a point of agreement here; a lot of those trade deals do suck. That said, trump is just not subtle enough to reform them

Regarding global warming, don't worry blue -my buddy dante has a hot seat reserved with your name on it in the 7th circle of hell; you'll have all the time in the world there to think about the healing powers of the earth...

Blue is totally unhinged.

I've seen DT blow everybody out of the water with the way he operates. It's not what we're used to, so it's somewhat shocking.

Blue -I'm with you on who the real enemy is -its china and they are well on their way to winning a war that no shots will be fired in. The next war has been underway for 35 years of skirmishing and so far the chinese have the upper hand economically as well as the longer game of controlling the digital grid (hello Huahui).

But like all wars, which with notable exceptions are best avoided, the best bet is to be strong and have shared destinies to the point that it ensures that any so called victory will be so pyrrhic that it would not be considered.

Trump is simply incapable of doing this, none of his businesses have shown even a glimmer (klimmer) of this.

Blue, dump the motherf*#ker, no better keep him so we can get our progressive social and enviro agenda through.
Relax on the 7th circle sh#t -that jibe had nothing to do with your faith, but everything to do with your obtuse view of climate change.

Trump on the other hand inspires a freak-out but not nearly as bad, he'd f*#k it up so bad it would be back to biz as usual in a few short years.
So as noted before, by all means vote for him -our crew may save your sorry ideological ass yet and ensure meaningful well-paying jobs for you-and your kids.

uh actually the first two were spent staunching the bleeding of the bush f*#kup and what was the reward -loss of both houses and since then it has been impossible to do anything thanks to you tea bagging knuckle heads.

I could see an commercial energy alliance with russia and a manufacturing and services alliance with china -both have and will be untrustworthy but the statees needs both of them albeit for different reasons....
Trump the guy to do the job? That's so wrong it isn't even funny. Don't take if from me, take it from his business peers with the exception crackpots like the home depot owner, to a person note that yes, he has made a small fortune -trouble is he started with a big one.

Curt posted:
There is already a good deal of "Regrexit" in the UK. A petition to revote, with over 3 million signatures is in circulation.

Curt posted:
I can't vouch for the validity of this perspective--but it's interesting

The anti-immigration sentiment in Europe comes from people, immigrants, coming into a new country and demanding it change to suit them.

Russia is run by an ultra-nationalist Russian patriot. That also makes him a hold-over from our past with Russian communism. If you are incapable of putting aside his past, you're not seeing the whole picture.

How long is it going to be Bush's fault? How long does it take for the genius in Chief to work his magic? He had 8 f*#king years!

a corrupt socialist dictator, Chavez,

Unbelievable racist hate being directed towards immigrant minorities in the UK now.

I know an older German couple who visited the father land and said they would never go back because of the Muslim presence...

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

― Winston S. Churchill

You have to admit that in view of what has gone down with Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland,
and Italy that the EU could be viewed as a sort of Ponzi scheme, although it doesn't seem
that anybody is benefiting other than the Brussels and Strasbourg elites.

Indeed. Things are unraveling so fast now, you have to wonder if there will even be an EU for Britain to get out of in two years.

Similarly, there's no reason to believe there will be a Great Britain in two years either.

Curt

Guilt is a great source of motivation.

Is the market carnage justified or just another act of profiteering?

"The British have violated the rules. It is not the EU philosophy that the crowd can decide its fate".
Martin Schultz of the European Parliament