The Yehudah Project: the Global economic crisis has begun! A repeat of 2008

LONDON — No one really knows what happens now. The collective imagination leads to dark places.

The world map has been redrawn with the rules of commerce across Europe, the largest marketplace on earth. Britain’s vote on Thursday to leave the European Union has set in motion an unprecedented and unpredictable process that threatens turbulence and potential crisis — for Britain, for Europe and for the global economy.

Of most immediate consequence, Britain’s vote to leave Europe sent global markets on a wild descent. Investors gaped at this major refashioning of the global landscape and decided it looked perilous — or at least so pockmarked with uncertainty that they preferred to pull their money out of riskier corners like stock markets. 

But no one knows enough to rule that out, either. The world has never been here before.

The pound plummeted, reaching depths not seen since 1985 — well below the value at the worst of the 2008 financial crisis. The euro dropped.

From Tokyo to London to New York, stocks tumbled sharply on Friday, as markets digested the changing world order. American shares were down 3.6 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 611 points, its biggest drop since August.

British stocks were off 3.2 percent, while broader European shares dropped 8.6 percent.

Investors took refuge in the safest investments, bolstering the value of American government debt and the Japanese currency.