That Brexit induced stock market disaster in full

The financial markets were of course going to go spare if Britain voted to leave the European Union. Armageddon, plagues of frogs, stockbrokers leaping from windows. That is of course how it turned out too:

A buying bonanza fuelled the FTSE 100’s remarkable rebound, erasing all of its post-Brexit losses in just two days.

London’s benchmark index enjoyed its best day in almost five years, soaring 219.67 points, or 3.58pc, to a two-month high of 6,360.06.

The rebound follows an 8.7pc plunge in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. The blue chip index now trading up 0.5pc since the referendum outcome was announced.

That is ever so slightly a cheap shot as the vast majority of the revenue, and thus the profits of, FTSE 100 companies comes from outside the UK. A falling pound thus increases their profits when stated in sterling.

But it is only ever so slightly that cheap shot. Because of course the same effect applies to the whole economy. Everything British is now some few percentage points cheaper than it was. Yes, modern trade is complex and all that but economics really does happen at the margin. There will be some increase in what foreigners buy from us, some boost to the domestic production of things for domestic consumption. A stimulus to the economy that is.

We would also note that the fall in the pound has been rather larger than whatever tariffs the EU might try to threaten us with on their imports from us. Even if our exports do face the full barrage of that tariff wall we're still cheaper than we were before.

"British exports cheaper! Trade disaster looms!" just isn't a headline which works really, is it?