Brexit

What do you get when your New York City goodbye dinner at Bacaro in the Lower East Side includes two of your closest British Friends shortly after the Brexit vote?

A lot of talk about European soccer.

I could have talked about the Brexit politics all night, but recognizing it's a touchy subject for my British friends, it's best for them to take the lead. Both my friends work in America and have been here long enough where they didn't get to vote in the referendum. One of my friends was very pro-stay and the other neutral. The rest of the 2 minutes that they talked about it was mostly making jokes at each other. Example: "I'm having the spaghetti with mussels and I'm NOT sharing. I'm British, not European." To give context, almost all meals we have out as a group we order family style, unless of course, you have the Brit who doesn't want to share. (I tease. I tease.)

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Forgive me, but I find the Brexit politics so interesting!! The first week after the vote I spent an admittedly absurd amount of time thinking, talking, listening, and reading about it. Border line obsession really. I found myself at the end of year staff party being like, ugh... All I want to do is sit in the corner with my closest friends and talk about the implications of the vote or read more articles about it. IS THIS WHAT MY LIFE HAS COME TOO??? Yes, yes it has.

I'm going to put it all out there.. There's so much to be thinking about:

- from the generational divide where millennials will have to live with the consequences of the older generation's vote, 
-the idea that immigration is deeply rooted in how people voted, 
-to the split of the conservative party and resignation of their Prime Minister and how there's no clear leadership to pick up the pieces, 
-to political chaos echoing throughout the UK, 
-to the idea of Scotland becoming independent so they can remain in the EU, 
-to the economics and financial implications across the world, 
-to the idea that $3 trillion vanished from the worlds economy over night, 
-to the downgrading of the UK's S&P rating to AA, 
-to the diplomatic suicide and how countries including our own will respond in their future interactions with the UK, 
-to the idea that Russia could rise as a power in Europe's future (and how scary that could be), 
-to the lack of listening and understanding of the working class by the wealthy elite (and how they were flat out ignored), 
-to the idea that the 2nd most googled word in the UK AFTER the vote was "what is the EU?", 
-to the idea of voters regret, 
-to the the interesting way different media sources take, 
-to the idea that Europe will never be the same again. 


Its all so interesting to me!!! It's like the kind of reality TV I can get into.. except its real. If you have any comments or ideas to add I'm all about it! Please do comment! I'm so eager to talk about this its almost embarrassing- I had to make Facebook down a notch to bring the annoying factor down.

If you want to know more about Brexit, this podcast covers the basics largely from an economics point of view. Take a listen!!
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/06/22/483142244/episode-707-brexit