Brexit: a self-inflicted and unmitigated economic disaster

Sterling is in free-fall, Britain’s economy is heading for recession, house prices are set to fall...but they were warned

An unnecessary economic crisis is being exacerbated by a political crisis Picture: Getty

Markets don’t like surprises. Last December, few people were surprised when the Federal Reserve in the US raised interest rates as they had signalled they were going to do so for several weeks. They didn’t want to risk a major market reaction when they did rise, and there wasn’t one.

Moreover, they signalled that there would be four rate rises in 2016. This despite the fact that every other central bank that raised ...