Britain just left the European Union.
On June 23, 2016, the people of Britain voted on a referendum on whether they should remain with the EU, or exit, the latter option being dubbed "Brexit."
The Brexit issue is a complicated one, with many arguments for and against it. Before I keep writing, make sure you're at least briefed on what the European Union is here. There are many different arguments used for proponents and opponents of Brexit, and there's no way I can cover all of them. But this is a general summary:
The case for Brexit was the overbearing regulations that the EU sanctioned on the people of Britain. Some of these regulations were outright ridiculous, like the fact that you couldn't blow up a balloon until the age of eight, or how you can't recycle a tea bag. When it came to immigration, being a member of the EU is almost like having open borders. You can travel, work, and live anywhere with ease. But fear of radical terrorism has become more prevalent in Britain and the rest of Europe lately, making this policy less popular.
The case against Brexit was that Britain benefitted greatly from the EU. Because of the uniform rules, laws, and regulations, corporations could set up headquarters in one country, rather than every country it was in. Because English is the most popular language, many European corporations set up their main headquarters in London. Proponents also argued that the EU made British people safer because law enforcement was more centralized, making information access across borders much easier.
Generally, I think the EU has a lot of good benefits. However, I'm not a fan for one reason: The Euro.
The Euro constrains money in the same way that the gold standard constrained money. The currency isn't sovereign. For example, The United States can never go bankrupt and default on its debts, because America's debts are denominated in the dollar, and must be paid with the dollar. The United States can't run out of dollars, because they print them. You can talk about inflation and things like that, but bankruptcy should be out of the question. The dollar's value is tied to productivity and demand. And the government can change those factors in order to counter an inflation risk if we reach a situation where we need to print a lot more dollars to pay the interest on the debt.
But not having the ability to print your own currency is harmful. Greece for example, can't print its own money, they use the euro, so when they struggle to make interest payments, they have to default.
So being constrained to a non sovereign currency is a good reason to leave the EU. Here's the catch. Britain doesn't use the Euro. They use the pound. So that basically means that Britain could have enjoyed the benefits of a unified Europe, good trade, modest due fees, good returns, great work opportunities because of the work flexibility, while at the same time have the ability to still print their own money.
They could've had their cake and ate it too. Instead they chose to leave that.
