From Forbes magazine’s website:
Wells Fargo and Apple both made substantial moves within London since the Brexit vote. Wells Fargo spent $400 million to buy a new European headquarters in London’s financial district. Apple announced plans to open a new London campus in 2021 that covers nearly 500,000 square feet of space. Facebook is also in the market for 700,000 square feet to accommodate 9,000 employees.
The whole article is worth a read. And it reminded me that there are now dozens of stories, tracked by the likes of Guido Fawkes, going on about how This or That splendid thing has taken place “despite Brexit”. The joke here, of course, is that the Remain-leaning folks who write for the likes of the Financial Times and others have a hardwired assumption that Brexit is bad, will damage the UK economy, and that anything that appears to be positive is therefore in some sort of defiance of said presumption, to be dismissed, or cast aside. (This is not all one way, of course, there can be over-inflation of optimism about what the UK departure will mean, but my impression is that the volume of “despite Brexit” stories and the bias they reveal is much greater than the other sort.)
The point is soon being reached when an entire volume of news stories could be gathered into one place and the title of the book could be called “Despite Brexit”. Maybe those folk at Guido Fawkes or the Spectator, etc might bring out one in time for next year’s Christmas. I suspect the book will run to several hundred pages. (OK, I demand copyright on the idea, now!)
New name for the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, etc: The Despite Brexit Press.
The recently passed US tax reform law might be a bigger threat to UK financial companies than Brexit. Apple, in particular, is a major beneficiary of that law.
Yes, the EU has been see complaining about that as well. All the better as an incentive to pass similar reforms in the UK and elsewhere.
Old but still current name for the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, etc: Junk.
This whole brexit thing has been a great example of “buy on the rumour, sell on the news”. People who believe that there will be a brexit continue to both depress markets and provide bargains.
I may use this if an appropriate opportunity offers. đ
Of course, they also run many stories that could earn them the name of The Spite Brexit Press.
(On a more serious note) it will be wise to remember that ‘the market can go down as well as up’. Because of the lying that accompanied project-fear Brexit, Donald-the-markets-will-never-recover-Trump, etc., many a ‘Despite Brexit’ story deserves a chuckle. However there will surely be a downturn one day – if the EU economy tanks, for example, we will not be wholly unaffected – and we may one day have valid reason to say that at least some things happened ‘despite Brexit, not because of it’.
Because of the lying that accompanied project-fear Brexit, Donald-the-markets-will-never-recover-Trump, etc., many a âDespite Brexitâ story deserves a chuckle. However there will surely be a downturn one day â if the EU economy tanks, for example, we will not be wholly unaffected â and we may one day have valid reason to say that at least some things happened âdespite Brexit, not because of itâ.
One of the central reasons why I voted for Brexit was that, even though the UK isn’t a eurozone country, the likely future problems for such a dysfunctional currency area mean that any problems will wash onto the UK’s shores. Given that London is home to the largest financial capital in Europe, with euro-denominated dealing accounting for a chunk of revenue, the eurozone policymaking class may well demand that the UK stump up cash to help rescue the system from which it benefits. This happened before, remember, when there were calls for a “Tobin” tax on market transactions. Such a tax, also dubbed as a sort of “Robin Hood” tax, would have disproportionately hit London, but given qualified majority voting, we’d be outvoted by eurozone powers. That is actually a pretty good reason on its own for Brexit if you are working in the financial markets, leave aside all the other stuff. And it also gives a lie to the idea that somehow, inside the EU, we “influence” it in our favour. The Single Market was in some ways a British construction, but as these things go, has morphed over time into a regulatory mess.
Considering their relitively recent history of fines, penalties, and return of ill-gooten booty, I wonder where Wells Fargo found a loose $400,000,000 to commit to such an endeavor?
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”?
The HQ thing …
The argument is that companies will move their European HQ to another European country.
However, what about the companies that have a European HQ already in another European country, they’ll have to open a new HQ in the UK.
Wasn’t Apple’s existing European HQ in Cork, Ireland ? Aren’t Facebook and Google also in Ireland ?
Such a tax, also dubbed as a sort of âRobin Hoodâ tax, would have disproportionately hit London, but given qualified majority voting, weâd be outvoted by eurozone powers. That is actually a pretty good reason on its own for Brexit if you are working in the financial markets, leave aside all the other stuff.
This. The European “Robin Hood” tax is still on the cards, although finance ministers are currently not in agreement (no surprise there), and if it does ever come about it will dwarf any losses we may have had from Brexit and will be a bullet well worth dodging.
I take exception to the term Robin Hood Tax. According to the stories that I am familiar with, it was excessive taxation that Robin Hood was dealing with. The “Rich” that he was stealing from weren’t people who had become rich by being successful, they had become rich because of high taxes. Robin Hood was returning the money to people from whom it had been stolen in the first place.
It is now the Winter Solstice up here in the North. I expect that the Sun shall return, despite Brexit.
In all these stories “despite” should be read as “because of”. That also applies to any future EU meltdown, whether or not precipitated by an idiotic “Tobin Tax”. (And I agree with Stonyground’s complaint about the popular corruption of the meaning of the Robin Hood legend. I, too, have long been irritated by that.)
Their hatred of the independence of their country (the United Kingdom) and their love of the ever-bigger-and-more-interventionist government that the European Union (and its supporters here – including in the British government) stand for, is vile.
In the US, it’s just “Unexpectedly”.
Under Obama – Unexpectedly, layoffs increased across the board…
Under Trump – Unexpectedly, many received bonuses right after the new tax bill passed…
Paul Marks –
We have the same thinking over here on the other side of the pond. There are a great number of public figures, academics, bureaucrats, etc. who despise the concept of American Exceptionalism and all efforts to place America First. Whatever can be done to reduce American influence and power MUST be done, in order to have a global economy and culture. America must prostrate itself to atone for its manifold sins.
We refer to these people as TWANLOC, Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen. The conflict in world views was not created by President Trump, but that event has made the conflict very visible indeed. How this conflict works out will in fact have global impact. Interesting times. The world in 2025 will probably be very different from today.
Can anyone tell us what is happening in Poland? Is their democracy going off the rails? I fell a bit odd supporting Brussels when it talks about a ‘rule of law’!! Pot, meet kettle. That sort of thing.
When the effects of the current solar minimum kick in, and we are all freezing our nuts off, will this be despite global warming? Or does the fact that it has been re-branded as climate change mean that we can blame fossil fuels whatever happens?
Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray (December 21, 2017 at 11:57 pm) “Can anyone tell us what is happening in Poland?”
My impression, based, be it freely admitted, on only a moderate examination not recently updated, and perhaps aided by my customary opinions, is that the Poles have a swamp of EU-loyalist types to drain much as we here, or as Trump has Obama hold-overs in the states, and of course these EU creatures are attempting to maintain their control and nullify the election result by lawfare. We all know the EU’s enthusiasm for the popular will, except of course when it should unfortunately contradict their own better informed opinion, and their ‘laws’ reflect that attitude. You must also remember that the EU ‘constitution’ is a rather strange thing to those who know the US one, and has been very justly described as being defined to mean whatever you can get away with at a particular time. Also, I believe Poland is, superficially at least, a net beneficiary of overt EU cashflow (unlike the UK); that they drift into the position of still desiring to receive EU cash while ignoring more and more of the more and more ridiculous or worse EU directives is natural.
This subject is a bit off topic, but not much; like Nicholas, I have no objection to getting comments from anyone with no axe to grind and some knowledge of Poland. (I have some Polish acquaintance but, as fate would have it, will not meet up with them this Christmas.)
I went outside and banged a couple of saucepans together, just to be on the safe side. It’s now 05:00 the day after, here. No sign as to whether or not it worked, yet.
@JP – Sadly, one can’t copyright an idea, only its expression fixed in tangible form.
“Unexpectedly, despite smoking fifty cigarettes day and weighing 400 pounds, I get out of breath running up stairs”.
@JP â Sadly, one canât copyright an idea, only its expression fixed in tangible form.
Well it was worth a try
I reckon that the book Flat Earth News (2009) covers this pretty well – having recently finished reading it.
Mind you, I suspect that calling it “a profession” might be a tad excessive – unless it’s meant in the same sense as “the oldest profession”, of course. The Biased Broadcasting Corporation, Grauniad, Economissed, and their sundry bedfellows would appear to be the main nominees for excellence in that regard, having taken the art of “fake news” to new heights.
Now I read that the Biased Broadcasting Corporation are planning to go into schools to “help students understand how to detect fake news”, or something. If it goes ahead, then I do think that sending a self-preserving propaganda machine into schools to “educate” credulous children on how and what to think would be a new Orwellian low for Britain’s schools and British society as a whole. Talk about sending in the Serpent to do the job…
I thought that the rot had been stopped with the introduction of Critical Thinking at GCSE “O” and “A” Level, to make up for the deficit at university level. Maybe that had been too successful?