Brexit could be just the shock the economy needs

In this month’s issue of Prospect, Adam Posen articulates clearly the serious damage he thinks Brexit will do to the UK economy. He may be proved right. But the future has a habit of remaining obstinately unknowable. Keynes wrote in the 1930s of the “dark forces of time and ignorance which envelop our future.” This is a more stylish way of making the same point. Keynes used “ignorance” in its literal sense. We face inherent limits to our knowledge of social and economic systems.

One regrettable aspect of the current Brexit…