Tyler Durden - "An Unparalleled Economic & Political Crisis": Brexit Optimism Collapses As Ministers Fear "Historic Catastrophe"

“I have near zero optimism because I think it is going to be very messy,” warned one UK minister, speaking to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. The prospects of getting an agreement are slim, the minister said. “If we crash out without a deal, it’s going to be a historic catastrophe."

And he is not alone as the latest YouGov polls show 69% of Brits believe Brexit is going badly and the largest finger of blame for Brexit going badly is being pointed at the government. Two thirds (68%) of those who think Brexit is currently going badly say that it is the government’s fault. This includes three quarters who voted Remain (77%) and 58% of Leave voters.

Additionally, as TruePublica.org notes, with lots of talk of preparing for a no-deal Brexit, the possibilities of the Tory party completely disintegrating in 2019 becomes ever-more real. The electorate is now becoming very nervous of what Brexit may bring, given that the Conservatives have no idea themselves, which means it should be no surprise that Theresa May’s favorability score plummets to new low.

It should be noted that, as stated above, those turning against the Prime Minister appear to be Leave voters. The only truly amazing statistic about Theresa May is that at the summer recess – she’s still Prime Minister. And few would have bet on that at any odds just six months ago.

Perhaps even more ominously, for the first time ever, more people support a second referendum - 42% of Britons think there should be a referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal, 40% do not.

Zero Hedge

Tyler Durden - "An Unparalleled Economic & Political Crisis": Brexit Optimism Collapses As Ministers Fear "Historic Catastrophe"r
                                 
                                                             *********

I'm not an economist, but I do try to work things out, so I was wondering how we could bring some of the industry back to the West, but then I could see there might be a problem with inflation unless we use more automaton.

I bought some tee shirts the other day for two for £8, and I wondered about the low wages of the people that made them. Then I had a thought experiment: Imagine if Western companies found another country where all the clothing for the UK market could be made at a fraction of the price so that the cost of clothing came down by 50%?

Now imagine that NGO's had campaigned to improve the wages of the workers in that country so that the following year the cost of all cloths shott up by 100%? Now imagine what the economists and the media would say: Inflation running at 100% in clothing!, would scream the headlines. People would get worried about becoming poorer and how to make ends meet unless wages go up, which never seem to, and pensioners on fixed pensions would worry that their pensions might not be worth all that much in the future. And yet if the low cost producer had never been found no one would have concerned themselves over the price of clothes. I could then see how difficult it was to reverse globalisation, and also, how difficult it is for Britain to leave the EU.

Now imagine if globalisation had never occurred? Western factories would be more fully automated and there would be more skilled people, with stronger unions so wages would be higher? I wonder what our standard of living would be like. If we were  poorer because we were not exploiting workers in the third world would we care as we wouldn't know any different? But there would be less immigration and houses would be far cheaper while the councils may still have been building housing estates reducing demand to buy a home, so we might have all be a lot better off. Even if it turned out we were poorer, the hourly week would have been reduced and work would have been less authoritarian. I think we would have been a lot happier. KV