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After the ordeal. Thoughts on EU Referendum day about Europe’s future

June 23, 2016 by andrew36 2 Comments

It’s EU referendum day in the UK. Before the results become known, it is a good time to reflect on the campaign and think about the consequences – legal, political and economic – of different possible outcomes, both for the UK and the EU.

Referendum number two

More than forty years after holding a referendum that overwhelmingly confirmed the its membership of the then European Community (“Common Market”), today the UK is holding another plebiscite, on whether to reverse that decision and leave the European Union, as it has now become. The referendum was an election promise by Conservative PM David Cameron to suppress the vote of the anti-EU UKIP party and keep his Eurosceptic backbenchers on side. The political constellation is roughly the same as forty years ago: the centre right and left – the Establishment if you so will – against the right and left fringes. However, one thing is certain: today’s outcome will be much closer than the 2:1 majority for In in 1975. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: Brexit, economic policy, EU, EU referendum, future of Europe, integration, Remain, UK

Progressive economists should support Remain not Brexit – a response to Steve Keen

June 22, 2016 by andrew36 13 Comments

Update: Steve Keen replies to my critique here.

140 characters are not a good basis for a debate about complex issues. Let me extricate myself from a potentially useful but frustrating twitter “debate” and write a short response to Prof. Steve Keen’s call to support Brexit.

I follow Steve Keen’s economic work at a distance but with interest and sympathy. Although I have not sought to make a career out of economic theorising, I broadly share many of his views on endogenous money and the central role of instability, uncertainty and bank debt in understanding economic developments. I was therefore surprised and disappointed to read his justification for supporting Brexit. Even if he did not formulate it as such, his statement is bound to be taken as a recommendation by his numerous followers and supporters. Yet his reasoning in the article is poor and – this is the most charitable explanation I can find – politically extremely naive.

There would be some additional points to make, but let me just address Keen’s two main arguments. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Commentary Tagged With: Brexit, democratic deficit, economic governance, EU, Godley, Leave, Maastricht, Remain, Remain for Change, Steve Keen, UK referendum

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Recommended links

  1. Mainly macro (Simon Wren-Lewis)
  2. Paul Krugman
  3. econoblog101 (Dirk Ehnts)