One of the press releases I got this week on the Brexit vote accused the UK of "democratic hooliganism." Of engineering a situation that has crashed our own currency and stock markets; put the entire EU at risk; and shattered the stability of our own political system. I don't buy it. As John Stepek explains, the stockmarket hasn't crashed: no more was "wiped off" stocks yesterday than was "wiped on" last week when markets decided that the UK was going to vote Remain. There is no crisis here.
Still that doesn't mean things haven't changed. Of course they have. On Thursday, it looked as though we had many, many years of bickering with the EU about their endless failure to reform in a way that suits us ahead. Today we just have two to four years of boring negotiations ahead. How will they end? That we can't know for the simple reason that we don't know who will be running them. Our prime minister has resigned. His replacement may well want to be sure he has a proper mandate to negotiate on our behalf. So he may well want to call a general election to get it. That means that right now we don't know who our new leader will be or which party he will be leading. Both things will make a difference.
The good news is that this week's Brexit comes with almost endless possibility and opportunity. I look at the kind of deal we might come to with the EU (as all the politicians I have spoken to today agree, "anything is possible"). Matthew Partridge looks at how we find out who our new boss is to be. And John looks at what more loose monetary policy might do for your portfolio and at some of the things you might want to buy to make the most of it. The value of an equity isn't based on the profits it might make over one year or two years but over those it will make over many years. An equity is a long duration investment. Something to remember when all those around you are losing their heads.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
We have written an awful lot about the EU referendum over the last year. We hoped for a Leave vote. And we are thrilled to have it. There are exciting times ahead. There'll be more on all this in the full magazine next week but we hope you enjoy this shorter referendum special.
-
Cash in on the growth prospects of Europe's companiesOpinion Marcel Stötzel, co-portfolio manager of the Fidelity European Trust, selects three stocks
-
Is the AI boom another dotcom bubble?25 years on from the dotcom bubble bursting, is it time for investors to consider the sustainability of the AI boom in the stock market?
-
How capitalism has been undermined by poor governanceEditor's letter Capitalism’s “ruthless efficiency” has been undermined by poor governance, a lack of competition and central banks’ over-enthusiastic money printing, says Andrew Van Sickle.
-
The biggest change in the last 17 years – the death of the “Greenspan put”Editor's letter Since I joined MoneyWeek 17 years ago, says John Stepek, we’ve seen a global financial crisis, a eurozone sovereign debt crisis , several Chinese growth scares, a global pandemic, and a land war in Europe. But the biggest change is the death of the “Greenspan put”.
-
Things won't just return to normal – that's not how inflation worksEditor's letter You might think that, if inflation is indeed “transitory”, we just need to wait and everything will return to “normal”. But this is a grave misunderstanding of how inflation works, says John Stepek.
-
Car hire and the strangeness of the post-pandemic economyEditor's letter A global shortage of hire cars and unusually high hotel occupancy rates sum up the post-pandemic global economy in a nutshell, says Merryn Somerset Webb, with enhanced demand meeting restricted supply.
-
Everything is getting more expensive – including moneyEditor's letter Investors are about to start feeling rather more pain, says Merryn Somerset Webb – from the rising price of money.
-
We may be heading for recession – and it will be no ordinary recessionEditor's letter Just as the downturn in 2020 was not a typical recession. the next downturn could be very different too, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
-
What companies should be prioritising this decadeEditor's letter In a world beset by uncertainty, companies should be prioritising slack over efficiency, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
-
Inflation could soon start to hurtEditor's letter Inflation is not going away. And with people's wages not keeping up, things are going to start to hurt, says Merryn Somerset Webb.
