[FLT-bird]

Cronos: If Britain leaves with no deal then EVERYONE gets hurt, but the Brits the most as two thirds of their business is with the EU. And most of their manufacturing relies on cross-country supply chains. The EU is perfectly willing to have a trade deal with the UK, but if the UK wants something like Norway or Switzerland has, then it needs to allow freedom of goods, services, capital and EU citizens. If they want something else then they need to negotiate the terms just like anybody else The UK under WTO terms will be just like everybody else. They will not "do fine" - but they won't collapse economically yet. They will have a hit of anything from 2% to 4% GDP in the 2 year horizon. After that, it all depends on how well their government manages it But that's the crux - May has NOT managed anything so far, so expecting her to manage the no-deal Brexit is a larf.

Two thirds of current trade is with the EU. Those percentages were radically different before Britain joined the EU and could well shift back to other markets once Britain leaves. Its not like Britain was a poor country prior to joining the then European Community. I agree that May has done nothing except roll over or Brussels and try to ram down the throats of the British people a worse arrangement than they had before Brexit. That failed. Britain obviously needs to move in a different direction. I agree that a bridge will be needed to buy Britain a little time to negotiate new trade arrangements. I'd like to see the US offer them a deal to do just that.

[Cronos]

Those percentages were radically different before Britain joined the EU and could well shift back to other markets once Britain leaves.

-- not completely correct. Before Britain joined the EEC in 1973 it did only 25% with the continent. But

1. This was 46 years ago, the world has changed
2. the other trading partners it has have shifted to other partners -- Australia is not going to junk its trade with India and replace it with the UK for instance
3. Those other partners will now see how desperate the UK is for a deal and ask for better terms
4. After Thatcher, Britain de-industrialized. It has less to offer the other parts of the world. Even in financial services, in Asia Singapore, hong Kong and Dubai are far preferable

Its not like Britain was a poor country prior to joining the then European Community -- while it wasn't poor, it was poorer than other european countries -- Britain joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973 as the sick man of Europe. By the late 1960s, France, West Germany and Italy — the three founder members closest in size to the UK — produced more per person than it did and the gap grew larger every year. Between 1958, when the EEC was set up, and Britain’s entry in 1973, gross domestic product per head rose 95 per cent in these three countries compared with only 50 per cent in Britain.

After becoming an EEC member, Britain slowly began to catch up. Gross domestic product per person has grown faster than Italy, Germany and France in the more than 40 years since. By 2013, Britain became more prosperous than the average of the three other large European economies for the first time since 1965.

The US can only offer something if the UK agrees to changing some of its rules -- and that's difficult. Consider the egg standards differences and you'll see why agreeing on a trade deal will take time