By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at
Time is short so let me present to you one chart... to get you thinking in the right direction.
EUR/GBP
Ok, I lied. Two charts...
GBP/USD
Pound pounded. Whyfore?
Not one thing but many....
Brexit
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker recently threatened the following:
“The bill for the UK will be, to put it somewhat crudely, very steep.”
Michael Barnier is the head honcho on the side of the EU...tasked with negotiating the Brexit. Although fluent in English, he's insisted all negotiations be conducted in... wait for it... French. Eff you Britain!
Brexit talks begin next week... or so we're told. Brussels, spurred on by the "success" of Macron and thus feeling empowered, are playing hardball. Uncertainty reigns supreme. Take another look at that chart. Unsurprising really.
Political Circus
No other way to describe it.
A swivel-eyed lunatic managed to garner over 12 million votes. And get this, he did so while being a documented supporter of Hamas, the IRA, and Hizbollah.
Now if that isn't enough for you to scratch your head he did this at the same time that Britains are being slaughtered on the streets of their own cities by ...you guessed it terrorists. JK Rowling herself couldn't dream up such a fantastical story if she tried. Certainly Jeremy Corbin would play Voldermort if he were cast in a Harry Potter film.
His opposition - Teresa May? Pfft... Do we even go there?
Let's not lest this publication be completely unfit for family viewing. British politics, like much of the Western world, is sadly a "fustercluck" of incompetence-meets-criminally-insane topped with a healthy dose of stupid.
Suffice to say the electorate have not read their history books, which is unsurprising given that the education system is run by bleeding heart liberals more interested in bake sales to raise money for transgender toilets, well socialised polar bears, and banning angry tweets than the decay of Western civilisation.
Cultural Marxism is having its inevitable effects. Britain today feels like a country completely without a rudder.
A Wave of Islamic Terrorism
Just last week, I discussed how this works. Three major terrorist attacks in as many months do little for investor optimism.
Are the political elite likely to realise the problem they're dealing with?
Eventually yes, but the question is will they do so before it's too late?
Time will only tell.
And speaking of Britain's political "elite", we have that complete imbecile Sadiq Khan, a man who, I will remind you, has strong ties to Islamic terrorist groups and who, in 2004, stated that Sharia law was "appropriate" for UK Law.
How our pale faced, cricket loving, tea drinking friends ever voted this despicable individual into any position of power is testament to the fact that we've reached (and indeed breached) peak political correctness. He shouldn't have been voted in. In fact, any citizen that campaigns for the implementation of such an abhorrent system should be together with their family immediately deported either to their motherland or to the country which most strictly applies these laws (it's a list of the most oppressive, poor, and dysfunctional societies on earth), and have their passport revoked.
London Resembling Mogadishu
An email from an old friend who worked with me at JPM in London a long time ago. He was a native Londoner who about 10 years ago moved to more hospitable climes. He ok'd me publishing the below email because I thought it important. I think his letter explains it well.
Chris,
I just returned from two weeks in London, after not having been back for over a decade. It's been probably 15 years since we all used to frequent Brick Lane and South of the river haunts. It's UNRECOGNISABLE my friend.
You would not believe it. I kid you not it's like f***ing Mogadishu. Being of Pakistani descent I'm pretty lucky and shouldn't have felt out of place but let me tell you, this is NOT any place you would want to be living anymore. People increasingly live in pockets but there are slices of Baghdad creeping in everywhere. The funny thing is I remember you mentioning this to me some years back. You told me how much Johannesburg had changed in your absence and yet those who lived there seemed not to really recognise the change... or to recognise it but not be alarmed. I found exactly the same thinking. People seem to be really apathetic to it. They're angry when you ask but they're lost basically.
Remember [omitted] who used to trade equity derivatives over at Deutsche (we all went bungy jumping that insane cable car in Geneva together). I never knew but mid-last year he had too many drinks and made the mistake of telling some guy in a curry house that if the "Pakis" want to bring their medieval practices here they should piss right off... or something to that effect (he never was particularly tactful). Anyway, 10 minutes later the guy walks back into the restaurant and knifes him in the face and cuts his throat.
His mates rushed him to hospital but he died before getting there. It never even made the newspapers! This shit is now so common that unless it's a major attack it doesn't even get reported. Exactly how you described JHB to me.
In any event, I'm quite relieved to be back (never thought I'd say such a thing) and though I was pretty shocked at a lot of things based on meetings I had I'm getting quite bullish on Britain, at least they're pulling out of the EU which is a start.
Yes, the world is indeed out of whack.
Summary
So we have a truck load of pessimism with respect to Britain.
Like the skinny, pimple-faced, nerdy kid in a school yard punch-up they're getting hit from all sides right now - political, social, economic. What more can the world throw at them?
As disturbing as all of this is... and it has much broader implications long term, it is times like these where things in Blightey need not suddenly get all peachy but merely become slightly less bad and returns can be quite impressive.
Question
Cast your vote here and also see what others think
- Chris
“If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.” — Thomas Sowell.
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