“The world has shrunk, it is interconnected”, Obama said.
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The video above from political explainer site Vox goes over a few basic points. “This does not help Europe awaken from their economic coma, but here in the USA we’ve been having to deal with a weak European economy for years”.
Whether these are lifted during Britain’s period of transition remains to be seen, while the country’s banking and auto manufacturing sectors have made it clear that jobs would have to be relocated overseas because of the vote’s outcome.
However, things may change after the prime minister’s talks with the other European Union leaders. Some in the United Kingdom do not like this, saying that it allows migrants from poorer countries to take advantage of Britain’s comparatively higher employment rate.
Cameron’s Conservative Party rival Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who became the most recognisable face of the Leave camp, is now widely tipped to seek his job.
Investors fled to the safety of gold, the yen and blue-chip bonds as the seismic shift in the structure of Europe left many huge questions hanging, including who will lead Britain following the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz called Cameron’s decision to wait until October to step down “scandalous”, saying that by waiting, Cameron – who championed the “Remain” campaign – was “taking the whole (European) continent hostage”.
In the end, United Kingdom voters split 52 to 48 percent to leave the 28 nation bloc.
Under the Lisbon treaty, a member state wishing to leave the EU should first notify the European Council its decision, triggering Article 50. This would set in motion a process by which the member and the European Union leadership will negotiate the terms of the departure and reach and agreement in two years.
The UK is now part of something called the “single market”, an agreement that allows countries in the European Union to easily travel and trade between countries.
The two-year time period is just an estimate, as it can be extended if both parties agree.
Unfortunately for Brexiters, this somewhat vague process could take about two years, and during that entire period, European Union laws still apply to the U.K. After that time limit is up, membership laws no longer apply.
This video from BBC Newsnight breaks down the effects on British commerce in more detail.
Predictably, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump praised Britain’s exit from the European Union as he taps into similar frustration in the United States over the economy and immigration. The UK is home to some of the largest global banking companies like HSBC and Standard Chartered.
In the short term, Britain’s economic slump could benefit Wall Street by giving the American financial services industry an edge over London, which is the financial capital of Europe, as Aaron Klein, a fellow, and D.J. Nordquist, chief of staff in Economic Studies at the Washington, DC-based think tank Brookings Institution, wrote in a column last week.
Immigration and growing financial insecurity have become rallying cries for populists across Europe, just as they have for Donald Trump’s campaign in the U.S. presidential election.
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Exit supporters were quick to dismiss any claim Friday that the outcome would wall Britain off from the world, but that’s exactly what will happen. Closing those borders will have long-lasting ramifications that we can’t entirely predict until we know the specifics of this deal that’s yet to be hammered out with the EU.
