Investors begin to blame Merkel for Brexit; Polls show her support has plummeted to 30%
Over the last few days, I have spoken to about a dozen of fund managers, investment advisors, and hedge fund research firms informally about the political crisis in the European Union. They all say the same thing about the U.K. referendum to leave the European Union on last Thursday: Angela Merkel of Germany has been a disaster for the E.U.
Merkel's pro-austerity economic policies for the nearly-bankrupted south, and her radical open door policies ultimately led to a Brexit. There is no turning back. Denmark and Sweden now also want to submit a similar referendum to voters. While those countries are not part of the euro zone currency, all it takes is one euro member state to drop out and the European Union is finished. It may be time for Merkel to reverse course on economic austerity. But first and foremost, it may be time for Merkel to lobby Brussels to ease off the mandatory number of migrants E.U. member states must take in. In other words, either Merkel moves to the center on these issues, or she's going to go down as the David Cameron of the E.U. If the E.U. survives.
The consequences of allying with Merkel’s brand of peace-and-love European humanitarianism is political death. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister who resigned last Thursday after 52% of the U.K., the bulk of them in England, rejected his pro-Brussels stance on migration and other matters and demanded a change. He now likely joins the ranks of other European Union politicians that can thank Merkel for contributing to their own demise, including Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Antonis Samaras in Greece and Pedro Coelho in Portugal. The only poster child of Merkel austerity success has been the conservatives in Spain. Greece is a basket case. Italy is a shadow of itself, as is Portugal. And France is teetering on a nationalist revolution that could see it the first to exit the euro in a worst case scenario next year.
---
Last week, Bretton Woods Research put out a note to clients titled "Merkel Must Go." The firm mainly provides research to macro hedge funds. In it, Vladimir Signorelli said that if Merkel fails to heed the pleas of Hollande calling for change, "we believe Merkel should step down as German Chancellor. She has done enough during the last ten years to make sure the E.U. has been a slow-motion disaster."
----
Merkel is in big trouble. Popular support for her is now around 30%, meaning the bulk of Germany disapproves. She will suffer further given the market volatility from Brexit this week, and if more countries -- namely Denmark and Sweden -- continue to make overtures to follow in the U.K.'s footsteps.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-investors-quietly-lay-brexit-090900047.html?ref=gs
= new reply since forum marked as read
