Commentaries (some of them cheeky or provocative) on economic topics by Ralph Musgrave. This site is dedicated to Abba Lerner. I disagree with several claims made by Lerner, and made by his intellectual descendants, that is advocates of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). But I regard MMT on balance as being a breath of fresh air for economics.
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
New Zealand proves Brexit isn’t such a bad idea.
Those who want the UK to stay in the UK, i.e. “remainers”, often argue that it is important to be able to trade with countries which are geographically close. As I pointed out here recently, that idea looks a bit silly in light of the fact that the average distance travelled by Australia’s exports and imports is around 6,000 miles. Same goes for New Zealand.
Further significant characteristics of NZ in this connection, are that it has a similar land mass to the UK, it speaks the same language, it has a similar culture plus it is slightly better off than the UK: at least GDP per head is a bit higher. And its population is a mere five million.
Now that all rather blows a hole in the idea that the UK needs a constant flow of immigrants from the EU or indeed from elsewhere. That is, if there was significant net EMIGRATION from the UK for the next twenty years, such that its population declined to five million, it would then be very similar to New Zealand: better off than it is now!!
Brilliant!!! I read this also in the Echo & applauded it, Just as i applaud many of your other posts(in the N.E) It's pointless my attempts to post there as am banned these days:-( (assuming you're the same RM? of course) Take Care & No Surrender:-) pennine:-) (b-m-r)
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Very interested to hear you've been banned at the Echo. I got the distinct impression I was banned there for the last year or two. I asked them to come clean and confirm or deny that, but they were too dishonest or idle to answer. What evidence do you have that you've been banned? Could just be that the Echo site is chaotic or poorly run.
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