Prior to the election of Donald Trump as President there was another vote which for shadowed his victory – Brexit. The United Kingdom or Britain had been in the European Common Market for 40 years and needed to vote on to stay or leave. One can imagine after 40 years – every institution would prefer the to stay and continue as policies or rules have been changed to reflect the union. One of the biggest reasons the City or downtown London had experienced growth is the financial industry – there is a rule which says all European transactions would be taxed similarly wherever they are done – London having the advantage of English language, although all languages are spoken in London, attracted the US companies to it. The US banks attracted the rest of the world’s banks. The rule will be changed now that England has decided to leave the European Union.

One of many books written about the election is Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2016. Mr. Oliver was the Communications Director for Prime Minister David Cameron which means he had an inside seat for the Brexit vote. The book flows in that fashion, you are a fly on the wall and listening on the Stay side. Fortunately in a democracy whatever the voters decide is the right course of action and if the politicians do not like it, they can step down and have others implement. There were many reasons to vote to stay and to leave. The most pressing to vote stay is economic – soon England will be outside the European Markets or not have very easy access which means goods be sent to Europe will be more expensive and goods coming in will be more expensive. In many forms, things will change. If a business or a community or caters to a local market, maybe they will not see much difference. The biggest issue on the leave side was immigration – with a common market people from England could work anywhere in Europe and people in Europe could work in England. In the lives of people, some people you like more than others.

From the perspective of the Stay Campaign, the Remain Campaign would make numbers and issues up, not based on facts or reality. Those numbers and issues helped by social media stuck, so there was an element of truth to them, but not facts. Some people brought up points that may have happened, could have happened long ago but they were issues and in politics both sides have similar type of issues. It was thought on the Remain side, in one example a county were there was an automobile manufacturing plant which was sending most of its vehicles to Europe, people would know that and vote their pocket book. The county voted to leave. Why? no one really knows but they did.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times dividend paying stocks because they have the ability of credit, they can do takeovers or mergers with other companies. Stories will be told on both sides, but with stocks as long as the opposition receives what they consider adequate compensation or enough money, the merger will go through. It often takes time before a merger can be worked through and some stories will be true and some will not be.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.