Yesterday I attended the annual Milken Institute London Summit. I was invited by the organizers as a non-paying guest I am glad to say in view of the high registration fee. It was a great day, the organizers did a superb job, and I have extensive notes from several sessions that I am sure will be of interest to you and Eoin. I have attached a pdf containing my notes on the opening plenary which was a panel discussion on Brexit. I wrote this up first because I thought it would interest you. It was particularly thought-provoking and entertaining, as you can read! The video of the 1 hour panel is available today online at the Milken Institute website and I have added the URL within the pdf. If you think subscribers would be interested, then please feel free to post the notes in your daily update. Please feel free to name me as the contributor if you wish.

Other sessions I attended were about finance, investment, healthcare and new technologies. I will send more summaries in coming days.

David Fuller's view

Thank you, David, and I am sure subscribers would be interested to hear your further notes on topics of interest from the Milken Institute Summit.  However, having read your droll summary of the first session, which I would call the mostly anti-Brexit panel notes, I was very glad that you did not have to pay the “high registration fee”. 

I hope you were able to ask questions of the panel members, or at least throw fruit.  I would have liked to ask Anton Muscatelli why he thought the negative impact in loss of GDP for the UK by 2030 was going to be 2.7%-9.5%, rather than perhaps 2.8%-9.6%.

I like Niall Ferguson and find him somewhat abrasive but always interesting and generally well informed. I am sure he saved the panel as an event, although they appeared to ignore his sensible challenges.  They were frightened and rude, it seems.

Good point on the Russian chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, who sounds like an EU propagandist.       

Roland Rudd’s quip about “the great lesson of the referendum is you have to be mad to hold one”, is amusing but also suggests that he does not really believe in democracy.  After all, what could be more democratic than a referendum, with a straightforward In or Out vote?

I thought Ferguson’s follow-up challenge was most apt and I’m not surprised that they ignored him for saying, correctly in my view, that they were condescending and patronising. 

The chair’s concluding statement: “Does Democracy only work in a society of intelligent people?” – is indeed stunning.  We hear some of that from Remainers, and many Democrats have uttered very similar comments following Trump’s victory. The President-elect’s apt, unstated riposte is the stunning new all-time highs on Wall Street following two or more year long trading ranges for most US stock market indices.   

(Note: the email and Brexit panel notes are from Dr David Brown who will be the guest speaker at our next Markets Now on 16th January. David’s fascinating topic will be: “Our new Industrial Revolution”.  I can’t wait.)