Must-Read: : The Magical Thinking of America’s Pro-Brexit Conservatives: “Lawrence Kudlow called Brexit a ‘Thatcher moment’ that could put Britain ‘on the pro-growth path of free-market supply-side policies’…
…The Wall Street Journal … explained… ‘now more than ever Britain will need supply-side economic policies that reassure investors and make Britain a growth model for Europe.’… By detaching from the EU regulatory superstate, an unchained Britain would return to its risk-taking, free-trading roots. London would become a sort of Hong Kong on the Thames, England a Texas on the North Sea. With the Voldemort of Brussels vanquished, free-market magic could be unleashed. Economicus growthus leviosa! Or not.
This is the sort of magical, fantastical thinking all too common in the Republican Party and among American conservatives… why Donald Trump can offer a $10 trillion tax cut plan that would need to quintuple GDP growth to break even–all with scant criticism from many leading voices on the right…. Even if you doubt the potential for long-term damage–permanently slower economic growth, the disintegration of the EU–the short-term post-Brexit picture is pretty ugly…. A 2017 recession as likely. Not to mention that disentangling from the EU might consume British politics and policy for years. And all for what, exactly? The U.K…. ranks ninth for global competitiveness, says the World Economic Forum. And it ranks 10th… on the Index of Economic Freedom…. Britain is already a relatively well-run, free-trading nation…. Never has so much been risked for potentially so little.