A post-Brexit world

After 43 years of – often rocky – togetherness, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill divorce is much more. It is an economic step that will have ramifications for many countries, including Lebanon, at least as far as tourists and traders, importers, investors, migrants and financial workers are concerned. It is a step of segregation that has implications for politics and decision making. It was a step that caused markets to stumble and politicians from the two largest political parties, Labour and Conservatives, to step down or, if they were exit proponents, ramble triumphantly.    Many of the economic consequences are unclear. Key central banks’ first reactions were tellingly subdued. The Federal Reserve of the United States said in an initial statement on Friday, June 24, the day after the referendum, that it was “carefully monitoring developments in global financial markets” and prepared