Brexit Comedy of Errors Includes a Resilient Pound
Currency traders seem to think it less likely that Britain exits the EU with no deal. That may be a big mistake.
Boris Johnson’s refusal to tone down his language may make it that much harder to reach a compromise.
Photographer: Jessica Taylor/UK ParliamentA reminder: Amid all the hubbub in Parliament, Boris Johnson is still the U.K.’s prime minister and the country is still due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, deal or no deal, unless someone does something to change it.
The Supreme Court’s decision, barely a decade after its forming, to invalidate Johnson’s attempt to use monarchical privilege to close Parliament may well prove to be Britain’s Marbury v Madison; but it still leaves Johnson in power, and the EU leaving date unchanged. Yet the pound is somehow barely shaken by this hectic premiership. Immediately after the supreme court’s stunning ruling, it was back to $1.25, stronger than when he took office. Even the pound’s dive Wednesday – which owed more to strength in the dollar than anything else – still left sterling near where it was when Johnson took over from Theresa May.