European Union

Dutch voters have demanded an in-out referendum on the Netherland’s membership in the European Union, amid growing fears that the entire European project is about to collapse.  With Britain due to hold a June 23 referendum, other countries are preparing for an imminent exit in the event that Britain leaves. Express.co.uk reports: In a new opinion poll in the Netherlands, a majority of voters said they backed the country having its own in/out referendum on EU membership, similar to the UK vote.

Ramesh Ponnru makes a good case that the U.S. shouldn’t take sides in the U.K. debate over “Brexit”:

As the in-out debate on the future of Britain’s membership of the European Union seems to favour a Brexit outcome – the pound sterling has fallen against the U.S. dollar.  The British pound fell against the dollar due to very real fears that Britain will vote to leave Europe in the June 23 referendum. Telesurtv.net reports: The sterling fell to a near seven-year low during the session after popular London Mayor Boris Johnson said he would campaign to leave the EU ahead of a June 23 referendum.

While the prevailing dour (or perhaps sour) overnight mood was a continuation of the weak oil theme which started yesterday after Iran said the production freeze proposed by Saudi and Russia as "ridiculous", and Saudi oil minister Al-Naimi said that Saudi won't cut supply and that high-cost producers need to either "lower costs, borrow cash or liquidate” (ideally the latter), risk sentiment was further dented when BOJ Governor Kuroda says he won’t target FX rates or stocks, which is clearly nonsense, and further spooked Japanese asset prices (Nikkei -0.85), while s

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