Last week’s UK vote to leave the EU may have come as a shock to many, but the sentiment that led British voters to reject rule from Brussels is nothing unique. In fact it is growing sentiment worldwide. Frustration with politics as usual, with political parties that really do not differ in philosophy, with an economy that serves the one percent at the expense of the rest of society is a growing phenomenon throughout Europe and in the United States as well.

One of the biggest weaknesses in the EU’s argument against secession from the EU is the fact that the EU is so very undemocratic. Whatever one thinks of democracy, the fact remains that Europeans tend to favor it, so the EU’s significant deficit on democratic representation in EU institutions has been a big problem in selling the EU to the masses. The EU recognized this in the Brexit debate, which is why EU supporters have focused almost entirely on economic claims. 

The night after the vote for an independent United Kingdom from the European Union had concluded I found myself at dinner with my wife trying to explain why the world portrayed by many financial analysts and news outlets was so filled with doom and gloom. “Why does the UK leaving the EU necessitate a global or UK financial meltdown?” she asked. And then it hit me, this was the question the world’s largest financial publications were failing to ask, or at the very least to answer honestly.

It has now become abundantly clear that the bureaucrats at the EU are doing everything they can to punish the UK for voting to leave the EU. 

Even before the referendum, German finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble threatened the UK and claimed it could never get single-market access to the EU. In other words, the UK would never be granted the sort of access that non-EU members Norway and Switzerland already have. 

I have my doubts about the utility of privilege theory (and strong concerns about the effects it has on civil discourse). But for those who take it seriously, one aspect of privilege that has been explored to a lesser extent is personal security. That is, if it is to be talked about at all, it is typically about how underprivileged groups are more likely to be the target of violence because of their identity, especially if the perpetrator is considered to belong to a privileged class.

The world is awash with newly printed fiat money. This is a concern to most, but not all, economists, because the increase in the money supply has failed to deliver its promise of providing “liftoff” to the world economy. Nevertheless, most economists in positions of influence to governments and universities still defend the necessity that there is some organization that can create more money out of thin air in order to provide for full employment or as some sort of countercyclical intervention.

Libertarians tend to focus on two important units of analysis: the individual and the state. And yet, one of the most dramatic and significant events of our time has been the reemergence-with a bang-in the last five years of a third and much neglected aspect of the real world, the “nation.” When the “nation” has been thought of at all, it usually comes attached to the state, as in the common word, “the nation-state,” but this concept takes a particular development of recent centuries and elaborates it into a universal maxim.

With Brexit, the Brits liberated themselves from the massive, overweening and despotic EU superstate. In its wake, investors may now begin to liberate their cash from government-issued debt by hoarding it in private vaults.  

A few days before the last FOMC meeting The Wall Street Journal  reported on the Fed’s hand wringing over its inability to identify the “natural rate of interest” and explain its recent movements. According to the report, the Fed uses the “mysterious natural rate” to guide its decisions in setting the target for the fed funds rate.

History was made this week as the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. By rejecting globalism and embracing self-determination, Brexit is an example of decentralization and devolution of state power, which is always worthy of celebration.