Brexit the ‘stupidest thing any country has ever done’ – Michael Bloomberg
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has told an audience in Dublin that Brexit was the single stupidest thing any country has ever done, adding that “it’s hard to believe how they did it.”
Mr Bloomberg was addressing a conference entitled ‘The Bloomberg Advantage: Future of Finance in Ireland’ which was held in Bloomberg’s Dublin offices.
“Ireland has benefited from Brexit,” Mr Bloomberg said.
He also made reference to the economic relationship between Ireland and the US.
“Ireland is now writing a new chapter in its history, and the roles are being increasingly reversed.”
“Ireland is the one that’s growing, and America is the one that’s worried about growth,” he added.
Mr Bloomberg highlighted the presence of major companies in Ireland including Google and Microsoft.
“Bloomberg is certainly glad to be one of the investors here,” he told delegates.
“We have 150 people in our office here now, and it’s growing.”
Mr Bloomberg said he was as surprised as anyone else to find out that the US had bombed Iran over the weekend.
He said that America is currently in a difficult situation in terms of politics and international relations.
He told the audience that he is not a supporter of the Trump Administration and warned that the US is throwing away of the lot of relationships that have been built up with other countries.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe also spoke at the Bloomberg event in Dublin and was asked how corporate tax receipts were looking for the month of June, following a disappointing May.
“If you look at where we are overall, we’ve seen another strong performance overall, year-to-date,” Mr Donohoe said.
“The increase in our corporate tax receipts has been so welcomed, so valued. It’s made such a difference.”
“It is helping us now invest in infrastructure, and we are building up our surpluses for that moment in which things could change.”
“We’ve run a surplus of around €8.5 billion euro per year, and we now have €15 billion set aside in two different funds by the end of this year,” he added.
Mr Donohoe was asked how a downturn would impact planned investments in infrastructure and housing.
“If the growth environment that we are in begins to further change, I will make every effort possible to protect and prioritise capital investment, because one of my deep lessons from the aftermath of the global financial crisis is when capital investment is decreased, the costs went up in the future, and I absolutely understand why it happened,” he said.
Article Source – Brexit the ‘stupidest thing any country has ever done’ – Michael Bloomberg