Good morning, it's Paul here!

The first couple of sections were posted last night. Today's news follows below.



Brexit

I've tried to avoid commenting on this, as it's polarised, and political.

I've come round to the view that most people (including me) believe what they want to believe. Therefore it's completely pointless discussing these issues, now that most people have formed fixed positions, largely based on defending how they voted in the Referendum (not in my case though). We'll just have to see what happens, and most people are talking rubbish, in my view.

Looking through the politics, and engaging our common sense, what is most likely to happen? The bottom line for me, is that the UK is a large net importer of physical goods from the EU. Therefore it is ridiculous to suggest that the EU will try to impede trade. One way or another, trade will continue very much as before, possibly with some short term disruption.

As regards services - companies in the EU don't use London for their financial services out of the goodness of their hearts. They use London because it's competitive for their needs. The feared exodus of jobs from London, in preparation for Brexit, simply hasn't happened, or only in tiny numbers.

Last week, I had drinks with some European bankers, who told me that German & Dutch clients are terrified about losing easy access to the UK. Some are setting up UK subsidiaries as a cautionary measure. That's the mirror image of scare stories going the other way - of UK companies setting up a nameplate subsidiary in Dublin, or Frankfurt, just to be on the safe side.

Bottom line - it's all going to be fine. All these issues will get ironed out, probably quite soon, as it's in everybody's interests to reach agreement. Therefore, I am coming round to the view that Brexit is probably far less of an issue that I previously thought. It could even be an opportunity to pick up some bargains maybe?

As usual, this is just my personal opinion, and please feel free to agree or disagree. I think we'd all prefer that the comments section does not fill up with a load of strident, partisan, political comments - that's best done on Twitter!


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