Adam Posen’s cardinal error in his gloomy prognostication for Brexit (“Drawbridge economics,” December), is to fail to make the connection, which the public intuitively understands, between democracy and prosperity. The performances of West vs East Germany, North vs South America or Japan before and after 1945 demonstrate that democracy is economic steroids.
A key problem for academic economists like Posen is their inability to assimilate the effects of warnings from organisations like the UK’s Electoral Reform Society regarding the EU’s increasing democratic shortfalls, in spite of the evidence of catastrophic economic outcomes for Greece and other southern European states.
Tim Martin, Chairman, JD Wetherspoon