Something historic happened here this week, and wring their hands as they might not even the banksters and their political puppets and their lapdog media can wave it away. The people got a chance to speak and speak they did. They spat in the face of the globalists.
Congratulations, Britain! You've thrown off the yolk of the EUreaucrats! Now go out and celebrate!
...But before you go, we have a few things to discuss. Like the Brexit-geddon tearing its way through the markets. Or the EUpocalypse of disintegrating unions and crisis meetings. Or Soros and the hedge fund disaster vultures. Yes, I'm sorry to be that guy and ruin the festive mood, but as I noted yesterday, this is not the end of the road by any means. It's just the start.
Obviously things are moving too quickly at the moment to live blog them all here, but here are some glimpses from the wide world of finance as of press time:
The pound plunged to its lowest level in 31 years Friday as gold, the dollar, the yen and bitcoin surged on the news that Britain had voted to leave the EU.
The central bankers are swooping in to save the world, with Bank of England Governor Mark Carney pledging $345 billion of liquidity and Fed Chair Old Yellen promising liquidity as needed to other central banks via existing swap lines.
UK travel firm Thomas Cook has suspended online currency purchases and limited in-store purchases as Brits line up to change their pounds for euros.
Stocks are down across the board with Dow Jones Futures down 700 points as of press time and Europe's benchmark SXXP off 6.41%.
The EU Stoxx 600 Bank Index was battered in a day of trading worse than Lehman, down 13% overall (led by majors like Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, both down 15% to record lows).
All of that sounds bad, but it's even worse. As Larry "heckuvajob" Summers writes in yesterday's Washington Post:
"To an extent that is underestimated in some quarters and understated in others, the world economy is far more brittle than usual because of the inability almost everywhere to lower interest rates substantially. Normally in response to incipient downturns central banks lower rates by 400 basis points or more. Nowhere do they have that kind of room. Nor is there large scope for reducing term and credit spreads given their very low levels."
So even if the central bankers want to keep the post-Lehman funny money gravy train going, they can't. There simply is no gas left in the tank and nowhere left to go but down. Or should that be “nowhere left to go but negative?” No, maybe it should be “nowhere left to go but more negative!”
Never fear, though! There's always a silver lining to every gray cloud. But in this case, that silver lining only exists for the hedge fund hyenas who are always ready to profit from disaster. Like George Soros, a man who, like the devil, has the habit of turning up whenever things are descending into chaos.
Just last month Soros switched into gold and reduced his equities exposure. He then doubled down on that trade earlier this month. Then, earlier this week, the famed hedge fund manager penned an op-ed for The Guardian that warned Brexit would make the pound plunge and help the speculators get very rich.
He should know. This is, after all, the same man who made 1.5 billion dollars on "Black Wednesday" 1992, the day that Britain was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the pre-euro exchange rate integration mechanism for Europe). Of course, the pound didn't just fall out of the ERM, it was pushed out with a hefty nudge from Soros himself, who borrowed as much as 6.5 billion pounds and converted them to francs and deutschmarks in order to push up British interest rates and force a devaluation.
But all of this market turmoil is to be expected in the wake of a major event like Brexit. The real question is what is the next step in the political process now that the referendum has been decided. Unfortunately, given that we're dealing with an institution that rejects the will of the people whenever it suits them, exactly what that next step will be is clear as mud.
We do know that departure from the EU is handled under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which says that the government of the leaving state will enter negotiations on the terms of the exit with the European Council. That process will take no more than two years...unless everyone agrees to extend the deadline. And the clock only starts ticking when the member state makes a formal request for departure to the Council. Oh, and as I noted in these pages earlier this week the referendum is not legally binding and is opposed by a majority of MPs.
Is that all clear now? I thought not.
The plain truth is that no one knows exactly how this is going to unfold because it has never happened before. But we can make some predictions about this process without going too far out on a limb.
Firstly, the same people who were so (rightly) outraged about being governed by unelected corrupt kleptocrats in Brussels are going to be quite sanguine about being ruled by unelected inbred royalty and the unelected Prime Minister presiding over the kleptocrat Parliament that convenes at their pleasure.
Secondly, the very people who caused this mess are now going to parade around as the heroes that will save us from it. Whatever chaos ensues from this decision, you can rest assured the globalists will try to harness it to promote their own ends, whether that be further consolidation of what remains of the EU or the bolstering of globalist institutions like the IMF, the ECB and others that pose as the saviors during the crisis.
Thirdly, the globalists and the bankers that pull their strings will not go gently into that good night. Anything that can be done to preserve the status quo will be done, whether that means a literal re-vote or merely a negotiated settlement that makes the UK an EU member in all but name.
But all of these are the worries for tomorrow. For today, for just one day, let's just take a moment to celebrate. Something historic happened here this week, and wring their hands as they might not even the banksters and their political puppets and their lapdog media can wave it away. The people got a chance to speak and speak they did. They spat in the face of the globalists. Let's raise a glass of cheer in honor of that accomplishment.
