From Foreign Waters

  Here’s something interesting about what I read today. It’s how Russia is only one of three states close by the US and Germany that will be vital in molding how Brexit plays out opposite the EU's changing worldwide international scene and a quick changing, multipolar world. Different powers, for example, France and China will be key influencers as well, however it will be the decisions of the initial three that will shape the future setting of European and global legislative issues.   Taken together, what these discussions feature is that, however significant as Brexit seems to be, it won't exclusively characterize the fate of the EU. All things being equal, the UK's exit is only one of a few first-request international strategy challenges standing up to the coalition, including progressing pressures confronting Russian relations, the fate of NATO, and binds with the US. How the EU reacts to them all won't simply decide its position on the planet, yet additionally ...

he idea that London might have a post-Brexit future as a kind of deregulated “Singapore-on-Thames” is one of the more curious notions to have emerged in the three and a half years since the UK’s citizens voted narrowly to leave the EU in the fateful June 2016 referendum. In fact, at least as far as the financial sector is concerned, the bigger threat to European regulatory harmony could come from France. The phrase “Singapore-on-Thames” is shorthand for Britain becoming a low-tax, lightly regulated economy that can out-compete the sclerotic, over-regulated eurozone from a strategic position only 20 miles or so offshore. The general idea was first mooted a couple of years ago by Philip Hammond, then Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, as a means of encouraging the EU to strike a friendly Brexit deal with the UK. Those who know Singapore well will quickly recognise that the analogy is far from perfect. True, Singapore has low tax rates (unless ...

On Tuesday, the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, announced that the company would be opening a plant near Berlin to build batteries for its electric cars to be be launched in the European Market. Musk also voiced the Brexit uncertainty as one of the key factors behind his decision to set up a plant in Germany instead of UK, which he was considering earlier. In an interview with a trade magazine, Auto Express , Musk said that uncertainty over Britain’s decision to exit or be a part of the European Union “ made it too risky” for the company to establish it Gigafactory there. Germany, which closely escaped recession with 0.1% growth in last quarter, is the right place for Tesla for more reasons than one. The big advantage which comes along the way of Tesla over its decision to move to Germany is the tag ‘made in Germany’, which takes care of the quality issues. The country is known for its engineering expertise and is home to two of the world’s biggest carmakers - Volkswagen and Daimler. ...